1 20 249 https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/0685584d4ab1fd5d933f9d4abc60aadc.jpg 5a5e5ac48ff50b7450cd59aca0999d4a https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/b727f4b2d6799672b1aa884f32e344cc.mp3 27e8b56cfdd4715fe6b18552652def2d Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Shanti Hill-Gauer Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Breda Sheehan Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 52m 43s Location The location of the interview Blackpool, Cork. Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound The following is a short extract from the interview transcript, copyright of the Cork Folklore Project. If you wish to access further archival material for this interview or other interviews please contact CFP, folklorearchive@gmail.com BS ‘Twould depend now on whether I was very very close to my grandmother so my mother was a very bad cook even though my father was a cook in the army so I suppose that compensated a bit but she was a very bad cook. But then I learned from a very young age that my grandmother, my grandmother was a great cook, so my grandmother lived in Farranree in St.Michael’s Road, so I would go from school maybe at half-past twelve to my grandmother’s house, for my dinner and then I’d go back to school then for two o’clock and I think we’d finish at half past three. Then I’d come home and then I’d have, I suppose we’d play on the road for a while. We’d do our homework. That time we had no television so a lot of our activities would have been outdoors, you know, we would have been maybe on the street until maybe half eight, nine o’clock in the evening playing games. S HG What type of games would you play? B S I suppose when I was kind of maybe ten, eleven, twelve, we would have been playing, it would have varied, there would have been boys games and girls games. You know girls would have played skipping now and we would have been, there was a game we used to call, I can’t remember what we used to call it but we would get five small little stones that would have been very smooth so you’d throw one up and while that’s coming down, you’d try and catch the one that’s below, until eventually, you’d catch the five, you’d have the whole five in the palm of your hand. We’d have marbles that you’d, you know you’d put up against the kerb of a footpath and we used to call ‘em glassie allies and you’d get those in all different shapes and colours they were. They were lovely glass marbles and you know they’d reflect colours and everything in ‘em. So you’d have to hit one, so if you, if you managed to hit one you won it. But if you lost then and you didn’t hit it, you forfeited your marble. We’d have scraps, that time you could buy scraps like they, they were like for all the world, they were paper but they were shiny paper if you know what I mean of all different shapes and you could get circus animals, you could get anything at all in the scraps so we’d swap those, and we’d have copy books then and we’d have all our scraps in the copybooks. We’d play chasing, then we had a game where, I can’t remember the name of it, but we’d like say stand at the footpath and run, where I lived now there was no houses opposite me, like there was the wall of the factory, which would have been Gouldings and that wall would have ran the whole length of Spring Lane, so opposite our house we just had the wall, a big wall, so we would run from there to the wall, but you’d be told stop. So you could take so many steps and stop and whoever would reach the wall first would be the winner of the game, you know. So that’s what we did to occupy ourselves. I was sixteen, I think when we got a television and we were the first on the road to get a television. And it was in black and white, we had one station and everybody in the road came in, to look at the television. So. S HG And just to go back, you mention the pocket money you’d get for you’d save it from the bus, what would you spend your pocket money on? B S I would spend my pocket money on whatever would last longest and I would, that was something that I really thought out, I didn’t spend it now stupidly. I would buy Cleeves Toffee which was, it was like squares of toffee but you would buy it in a bar, for all the world now, it would be like a Cadburys bar of chocolate but instead of it being chocolate, it would be toffee where you could break off one square at a time, so I think that was around sixpence and that would last you for a long time. But as a result like that had, we didn’t realise going back that time about you know the danger of sweets or sugary foods with your teeth so I lost a lot of my teeth when I, before I was eighteen and it was over, over the Cleeves Toffee. [laughs] S HG [laughs] Where would you buy your toffee? Was there a sweet shop or? B S Oh there would have been lots of shops. When I was growing up in Blackpool, Thomas Davis Street was all shops. Like it was residential and commercial but it was mainly commercial. There would have been, the main street would have been mainly commercial but off the main street then which was Thomas Davis Street, you’d lots of laneways. You would have had Bird’s Quay, Welshs Lane, Green Lane, Slattery's Lane and Fosters Lane which would have been renamed and it would have been called Thomas Davis Avenue after we got our independence but nobody locally referred to it as Thomas Davis Avenue, we always called it Fosters Lane. And on the other side of the street then, you would have Prosperous Place and you would have Wherlands Lane and there was Haylans Lane as well. There was Corcoran's Quay. So you had the commercial main street but you had all these laneways running off the street and running parallel then to Thomas Davis Street would have been, what we would have called locally as the High Bank. It was, it was part of the Glen, it was the Glen River, the Glen river ran through Gouldings Glen and came down behind Spring Lane, behind Gouldings and down, running parallel with Thomas Davis Street so that would have been a place where we would have played as well because it, you had stream, it was a bank for all the world and you had a stream running down the side. Growing up we were very lucky, as I said we were very near the country at that time and we had Gouldings Glen which is literally on our doorstep so Gouldings Glen was like kind of set in a valley, and you know you had the Glen River running through so you could swim there in the summer. Oh, you could, you’d spend hours up there, you know in a glen you’d have great fun. S HG Would a lot of families go down to take their children or would children just go down to play or? B S Oh, we’d play there on our own, that’s a thing now that has changed as well, you couldn’t leave children out today and especially going to, what would have been really a very lonely place looking back on it, to us it was tranquil and it was a fantastic place like to play you know, because there was all high furze bushes, now I don’t know what the proper name for those would be, but they would have been, you could hide and play, you had the streams and you could be, you know running over the streams. It was great and also we had another stream, not very far from us as well, it was Ellis’ House, Ellis’, I told you about Ellis gravel yard, but they had a house, not very far from us, and running by their house as well was another stream. I don’t know the name of that stream. S HG How would you, you said children could go off and play on their own back when you were growing up, how would you compare that to today in terms of safety and you know leaving your child go off to the shop or is that even possible? B S It is possible to a degree. Today now it is possible to a degree to leave children out, where I live now at the moment which wouldn’t have been very far from where I was reared, I live now in Dublin Hill. And children are always playing in Dublin Hill on the streets, and it is quite safe and they could go to the shop as well, but to leave them go off out to somewhere in the country, you know what would be regarded now as the country and to leave them go into woods, you know that wouldn’t be safe. You know, I think even I was more nervous even when my own children. Even though I did it as a child and we all did and it was quite safe even when my own children were growing up, you would have been more wary. They were allowed to go but they always had to have older children with them, like maybe somebody twelve, thirteen minding the smaller ones but today now again that wouldn’t be safe. S HG And going back as well to the old laneways, can you just describe those laneways and what sort of activities that take place? B S I suppose as a child, you take things for granted and you don’t really take in much about what’s going on around you, you just take it for granted, but the laneways in Blackpool, I suppose they would have been very similar to Spring Lane only Spring Lane like was a very very long lane, you know, Spring Lane like went from Thomas Davis Street right up to, to where actually to where the fire station is now, on the new ring road, the new north ring road, Spring Lane would have ran parallel with that the whole way up nearly as far as there. Whereas with the laneways in Blackpool, they were much shorter little laneways and I’d say they were, they were communities. I’d say the neighbours were very neighbourly as they were in Spring Lane. I can only compare the laneways now I suppose to my own laneway and in our own laneway, if a child came home and there happened to be nobody at home, the neighbour always brought you in and cared for you. If you were sick the neighbour was always sent for to come in and diagnose what was wrong with you. Just looking back on it, I thought it was normal at the time but looking back on it was very very unusual, we had a family that lived next door to us, and they were a large family because both, both parents had been widowed, and with, had lost their partners and they had remarried so in a sense there was like three families. There was the woman’s family and the man’s family, and then their family together, so they would have had, the bread man used to come around that time, well I don’t know if the bread man goes around now, but that time the bread man would come around and her windows, she had two windows, she had a window at either side of her door, and the two window sills would have been full of bread. Now all homemade bread, so if I came home from school or if my mother wasn’t there and I’d, there was no bread, I’d go out and I’d have a look at what kind of bread they’d have on the window and she’d have all different varieties of bread so I would choose what loaf that I would, that I would fancy and I would take it in and then when my mother would come in, oh I’d say to my mom, mom I took a loaf of bread belong to next door. So we’d be sent to the shop then to get it to replace it, but you know, thinking about it that woman never ever objected to me going out and taking a loaf of her bread. You couldn’t do that today, you know. S HG Its amazing the difference in the. B S Yeah, you couldn’t do that today. And you know you could have a neighbour up the road that would maybe, we had one single neighbour up the road now, and if she cooked a stew for herself and she’d cooked too much, she’d come down with her big jug and all the stew in it for us, you know, because like I suppose my father’s wages weren’t very good and like, there was, we were a large family but it was a different world, you know, totally different world to what it is now. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data MiniDisc Bit Rate/Frequency Rate at which bits are transferred (i.e. 96 kbit/s would be FM quality audio) 16bit / 44.1kHz Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Breda Sheehan: Blackpool, Childhood games, Lido cinema, Spring Lane. Subject The topic of the resource Life History: Blackpool, Childhood games, Ellis’s, Goulding's, Lido cinema, Spring Lane. Description An account of the resource Breda grew up in Spring Lane, off Thomas Davis Street, Blackpool. She grew up with five sisters. Her father was a soldier in the Irish Army and was away a lot. She grew up in a row of cottages that she believes dated back to the Seventeenth Century. People rented their houses until the 1950s, when they began to buy them. In the 1970s, the area bounded both the city and the countryside. It was also an industrial area, with Goulding’s fertilizer factory and Ellis’s gravel yard. During the 1950s men queued at Gouldings looking for casual work. She lists the games and pastimes she played as a child: catching stones, marbles (‘glassy allies’) and scraps (scrapbooks). She names the lanes around Thomas Davis Avenue, which residents called by its old name, Foster’s Lane. Neighbours looked out for each other’s children and for each other. She tells a story about looking for apples at the Ellis family house, nearby. The Lido cinema in Blackpool showed episodic films, which she loved to see with her grandmother; she describes the seating inside. She talks about how Blackpool has changed, and how the lanes have gone or been renamed and the old shops have gone. Changes came in the way shopping was done, with the arrival of city centre supermarkets, while the lanes were replaced with new housing. Yet she thinks that Spring Lane has basically remained unchanged; she remembers that there was an orchard behind the lane, which was replaced by Glen Rovers GAA club. She comments on Blackpool Post office, about which there has been a local dispute; she mentions that one site of the post office had been the home of Thomas MacCurtain, Mayor of Cork, who had been shot during the War of Independence. She mentions Madden’s Buildings as being among the oldest social housing in Cork, built in 1885 [1886]. She comments that demolishing Blackpool’s lanes meant removing people and that its community spirit declined as a result; she notes the arrival of immigrants. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 16 April 2008 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Interviewee: Breda Sheehan. Interviewer: Shanti Hill-Gauer. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CFP_SR00328_sheehan_2008 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Cork: Ireland; 1950s-2000s. Relation A related resource As Interviewee: CFP00328, CFP00387, CFP00388. As Interviewer: CFP00389_Healy, CFP00396_Lane, CFP00398_Jones, CFP00399_Savile, CFP00401_Marshall, CFP00402_Marshall, CFP00450_Dwyer, CFP00480_Cremin 1960s 1970s Blackpool Breda Sheehan Childhood Games Cinema Ellis’s Family Goulding's Scraps Spring Lane The Lido https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/9c50bb85dee444027590a3f3dc026fc9.jpg c749eda90e16fa92bb8fcc1bdb0b02f4 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource LGBT Collection Subject The topic of the resource Stories and memories of LGBT life in Cork City and County. Description An account of the resource The LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) collection was launched and created in August 2014 by Stephen Dee and Dermot Casey, researchers at the Cork Folklore Project. The Project was established to record and preserve stories and memories of LGBT life in Cork City and County, with a focus prior to decriminalization in 1993 but also to document the important achievements and struggles that contributed to a society that today is far more accepting of LGBT people. This is proven today with the legalisation of same sex marriage through popular vote and the increased visibility of LGBT people in all areas of public life. The collection’s aims are to explore three main aspects: ‘Personal Recollections’ including but not limited to identity, coming out and experiences of homophobia; ‘Community Stories’ based on certain areas, streets, and forms of social interaction within the LGBT community; and ‘Political Movements’, chronicling political events, motivations and outcomes such as the creation of the Cork-based Irish Gay Rights Movement in 1976, Cork Gay Collective in 1980, and UCC Gay Soc in 1980. Each interview we conducted was unique with each interviewee covering some or all of these topics and with some areas being explored in depth. We hope the material can complement LGBT research in Ireland and also stimulate further interest amongst the public in LGBT history. To date we have distributed some of this material to the public with an audio visual presentation on YouTube and in 2016 in conjunction with Cork City Partnership for LGBT Awareness week we produced a public exhibition of our sound excerpts at Cork City Library. Special thanks to all our interviewees and also to Alvina Cassidy whose research also features in this collection. This LGBT collection of interviews is stored within the Cork Folklore Project permanent oral history archive run in conjunction with UCC’s Folklore and Ethnology Department and Northside Community Enterprises, with both a physical and digital presence. As with all our material, access to full interviews is supervised through a variety of permissions and forms. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012 and onwards Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Interviewees: Derrick Gerrety; Eddie Kay; Christine Browne; Stephen Dee; Dermot Casey; Padraig McCarthy; Clive Davis; Finbarr Kiely; Ken Curtin; Paul McAllister; Jonathan Neville; Tara Whelan; Edmund Lynch; Tony Doherty; Cathal Kerrigan; Barra O’Donnabhain Interviewers: Alvina Cassidy; Stephen Dee; Dermot Casey Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/85">CFP_SR00502_kay_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/86">CFP_SR00516_browne_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/87">CFP_SR00518_dee_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/88">CFP_SR00519_casey_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/89">CFP_SR00521_mccarthy_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/90">CFP_SR00532_davis_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/91">CFP_SR00534_kiely_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/92">CFP_SR00547_curtin_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/93">CFP_SR00548_mcallister_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/94">CFP_SR00549_neville_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/96">CFP_SR00555_whelan_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/97">CFP_SR00556_lynch_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/98">CFP_SR00558_doherty_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/99">CFP_SR00561_kerrigan_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/100">CFP_SR00576_odonnabhain_2016;</a> Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Ethnographic interviews carried out with members of the LGBT community in Cork city and county Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Cork Folklore Project Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Cork Folklore Project Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Cork Folklore Project Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Audio Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 16 .wav files Relation A related resource Youtube video showcasing interviews from our LGBT Archive Collection. Ten voices, eight topics, ranging from First Discovery, Coming Out, The Scene, Marriage and more. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enopWLdeOAw&t=2s">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enopWLdeOAw&t=2s</a> Other CFP Material Realting to LGBT Life in Cork: <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/document/130">CFP_SR00418_gerrety_2012</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Stephen Dee & Dermot Casey Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Paul McAllister Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 30min 29sec Location The location of the interview To the side of the Wolff Mardyke Pedestrian Bridge Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data .wav Bit Rate/Frequency Rate at which bits are transferred (i.e. 96 kbit/s would be FM quality audio) 24bit / 48kHz Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound DC And did you ever go on the scene before you came out or did that all happen after? PM No, no I started going to the Otherplace at twenty-seven, twenty-eight, kind of, every Saturday night, sneaking in and sneaking out, I knew nobody so I was just going there, I used to get the last bus up, hop in, down the dark alley, sneak in the door, mortified, knocking at the door, please let me in, and going in so for the first kind of I’d say two days before I came out to myself I was kind of dabbling, not meeting anyone, just going to the club and stuff and then met a few friends and it got a bit more regular every week and then it was going to Loafers every week and then it kind of worked from there. SD Can you tell us a little bit more about your first time going to the Otherplace, the atmosphere, the feelings? PM Oh nightmare, nightmare, I used to stress, I don’t drink so I used to go up on the bus and I used to be getting ready at home and I used to get the twenty past ten bus now cause at that stage I knew no one so I used to go on my own and its down in the middle of town but its down a very dark street so you walk down, its two kind of doors and one is kind of closed off but not knowing it I used to knock at the wrong door so for the first few weeks I was like slow, knocking at the wrong door with no one coming out to me and eventually I kind of cased the joint and go out again and come around and eventually I learned that there was cameras inside so they were all watching me, laughing at me because over the time they said you were always going to the wrong door why did you keep picking the wrong door, and you had to be a member at that time so the first few times was a nightmare, walking in and this big blurry, burly bouncer said do you know where you are and I said yeah cringing, then the people behind the counter taking your coat and I’m saying I hope I know no one, you walk up a stairs, then you open a door and everyone turns and then you die, and then after a while you kind of, once I’m in there then I’m fine its just initially getting inside the door was a nightmare, for about a month, it took me months to get used to walking in there, hated it, cause you could open the door and see anyone, it could be a woman dressed as a man, or a man dressed as a woman, sorry, and it could be a bit intense so yeah, nightmare, but after a few months of that it was grand. DC What year would this have been around? PM I’m now forty-four so twenty eight how long ago is that, sixteen years ago, so it would have been 1990’s, late 1990’s, so I was doing the club scene from the 1990s onwards and then I was doing Loafers now and again, like once, depending on who I was with and hanging around with but yeah it was around that time, 1990’s, late 1990’s when I started to kind of dabble in that part of life. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Paul McCallister: Homosexuality, Catholic Church, Decriminalisation Subject The topic of the resource Stories and memories of LGBT life in Cork City and County Description An account of the resource Paul talks about the challenges of being gay in Ireland, coming out, family reactions and the evolution of social attitudes toward homosexuality in Catholic Ireland. He talks about the club scene in late 1990s Cork and the legalisation of homosexuality in 1993. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 9 April 2015 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Interviewee: Paul McAllister Interviewers: Stephen Dee & Dermot Casey Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CFP_SR00548_mcallister_2015 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Cork, Ireland, 1990s-2010s Relation A related resource <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/85">CFP_SR00502_kay_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/86">CFP_SR00516_browne_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/87">CFP_SR00518_dee_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/88">CFP_SR00519_casey_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/89">CFP_SR00521_mccarthy_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/90">CFP_SR00532_davis_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/91">CFP_SR00534_kiely_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/92">CFP_SR00547_curtin_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/93">CFP_SR00548_mcallister_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/94">CFP_SR00549_neville_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/96">CFP_SR00555_whelan_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/97">CFP_SR00556_lynch_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/98">CFP_SR00558_doherty_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/99">CFP_SR00561_kerrigan_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/100">CFP_SR00576_odonnabhain_2016;</a> <div class="element-text">Youtube video showcasing interviews from our LGBT Archive Collection. Ten voices, eight topics, ranging from First Discovery, Coming Out, The Scene, Marriage and more. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enopWLdeOAw&t=2s">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enopWLdeOAw&t=2s</a></div> <div class="element-text"> Other CFP Material Realting to LGBT Life in Cork: <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/document/130">CFP_SR00418_gerrety_2012</a></div> <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/100"></a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 .wav File Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Cork Folklore Project. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Cork Folklore Project. Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound 1990s 2000s 2010s Catholic Church David Norris Decriminalisation Homosexuality LGBT Loafer's Paul McCallister Taboo The Other Place https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/0512ab2a25d7c5249618709fe6975b61.jpg c749eda90e16fa92bb8fcc1bdb0b02f4 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource LGBT Collection Subject The topic of the resource Stories and memories of LGBT life in Cork City and County. Description An account of the resource The LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) collection was launched and created in August 2014 by Stephen Dee and Dermot Casey, researchers at the Cork Folklore Project. The Project was established to record and preserve stories and memories of LGBT life in Cork City and County, with a focus prior to decriminalization in 1993 but also to document the important achievements and struggles that contributed to a society that today is far more accepting of LGBT people. This is proven today with the legalisation of same sex marriage through popular vote and the increased visibility of LGBT people in all areas of public life. The collection’s aims are to explore three main aspects: ‘Personal Recollections’ including but not limited to identity, coming out and experiences of homophobia; ‘Community Stories’ based on certain areas, streets, and forms of social interaction within the LGBT community; and ‘Political Movements’, chronicling political events, motivations and outcomes such as the creation of the Cork-based Irish Gay Rights Movement in 1976, Cork Gay Collective in 1980, and UCC Gay Soc in 1980. Each interview we conducted was unique with each interviewee covering some or all of these topics and with some areas being explored in depth. We hope the material can complement LGBT research in Ireland and also stimulate further interest amongst the public in LGBT history. To date we have distributed some of this material to the public with an audio visual presentation on YouTube and in 2016 in conjunction with Cork City Partnership for LGBT Awareness week we produced a public exhibition of our sound excerpts at Cork City Library. Special thanks to all our interviewees and also to Alvina Cassidy whose research also features in this collection. This LGBT collection of interviews is stored within the Cork Folklore Project permanent oral history archive run in conjunction with UCC’s Folklore and Ethnology Department and Northside Community Enterprises, with both a physical and digital presence. As with all our material, access to full interviews is supervised through a variety of permissions and forms. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012 and onwards Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Interviewees: Derrick Gerrety; Eddie Kay; Christine Browne; Stephen Dee; Dermot Casey; Padraig McCarthy; Clive Davis; Finbarr Kiely; Ken Curtin; Paul McAllister; Jonathan Neville; Tara Whelan; Edmund Lynch; Tony Doherty; Cathal Kerrigan; Barra O’Donnabhain Interviewers: Alvina Cassidy; Stephen Dee; Dermot Casey Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/85">CFP_SR00502_kay_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/86">CFP_SR00516_browne_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/87">CFP_SR00518_dee_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/88">CFP_SR00519_casey_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/89">CFP_SR00521_mccarthy_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/90">CFP_SR00532_davis_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/91">CFP_SR00534_kiely_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/92">CFP_SR00547_curtin_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/93">CFP_SR00548_mcallister_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/94">CFP_SR00549_neville_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/96">CFP_SR00555_whelan_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/97">CFP_SR00556_lynch_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/98">CFP_SR00558_doherty_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/99">CFP_SR00561_kerrigan_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/100">CFP_SR00576_odonnabhain_2016;</a> Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Ethnographic interviews carried out with members of the LGBT community in Cork city and county Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Cork Folklore Project Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Cork Folklore Project Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Cork Folklore Project Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Audio Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 16 .wav files Relation A related resource Youtube video showcasing interviews from our LGBT Archive Collection. Ten voices, eight topics, ranging from First Discovery, Coming Out, The Scene, Marriage and more. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enopWLdeOAw&t=2s">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enopWLdeOAw&t=2s</a> Other CFP Material Realting to LGBT Life in Cork: <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/document/130">CFP_SR00418_gerrety_2012</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Stephen Dee & Dermot Casey Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Ken Curtin Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 35min 31sec Location The location of the interview North mall, Cork City Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data .wav Bit Rate/Frequency Rate at which bits are transferred (i.e. 96 kbit/s would be FM quality audio) 24bit / 48kHz Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound SD Em, was there a specific event that happened that made you get into equality in general in your fight for it? KC Em, I suppose do you know what, I actually think probably becoming a student union officer in the late 90s, or mid to late 90s would have been really where my view changed, because I grew up in a part of rural very, em, [pause] let’s just say we weren’t very forward-looking in our thought perspective, like I give the example of-- there was a gran-aunt of mine, now deceased, a lovely lady, but she got a -- she got a blood transfusion in hospital and her two-- her biggest concern when she got the blood transfusion because she had black and blue bruising around it was that she was after getting a black-man’s blood and I explained to that wasn’t how it worked, ‘twas just bruising and I also had to explain to her, look the blood could come from anywhere and of course this sent her into free-fall, because as bad as it was the idea that it was a black man’s blood, she then realised that she could’ve got protestant blood and that would’ve been the ultimate no-no, that there was protestant blood gone into her system so I had to get a priest to come along and literally give her a blessing and things to make sure that this protestant blood was dealt with, em, and that wasn’t a hundred years ago, that was literally a little over-- that was within the last twenty years that happened, and I know to this day I’m still interacting with people in different walks of life who haven’t embraced or haven’t opened their eyes to the wider community particularly, so, I suppose, I’ve always been very strong on feminist issues, I’ve been strong on, I suppose, on this particular issue, but like, and I remember when the-- I remember having to explain to people years ago when I took part in a protest about em-- which one that I still to this day can’t get my head around is the blood transfusion, that men-- that gay men can’t give blood, em, and I-- I got-- I was on the television at the time talking about it and I had umpteen people onto me afterwards “Jesus Ken, what were doing, supporting the gays, what’s that all about like?” Whereas to me it just seemed insane, I’m a blood donor as well, there’s a huge shortage of blood donations all the time. These were people for every solid medical reason they could give blood, for, they were willing to give blood when an awful lot of people weren’t and we were turning them down, and unfortunately to this day it still hasn’t been resolved. So em, there’s been-- there was no one issue but a kind of a combination of all that like, I was always going to be supportive when something like this came along then. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Ken Curtin: Marriage Referendum, Political Activism, Marriage Equality, Subject The topic of the resource Stories and memories of LGBT life in Cork City and County Description An account of the resource Ken was the campaign director for the Yes Equality! which campaigned for a yes vote in the marriage equality referendum in 2015. Ken, a heterosexual man, outlines his relationship to the gay community. en then explains his background in politics and other campaigns that he has been involved with. Ken then goes on to explain the nuances of the debate around marriage equality referendum. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 31 March 2015 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Interviewee: Ken Curtin Interviewers: Stephen Dee & Dermot Casey Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CFP_SR00547_curtin_2015 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Cork, Ireland, 2010s, Relation A related resource <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/85">CFP_SR00502_kay_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/86">CFP_SR00516_browne_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/87">CFP_SR00518_dee_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/88">CFP_SR00519_casey_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/89">CFP_SR00521_mccarthy_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/90">CFP_SR00532_davis_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/91">CFP_SR00534_kiely_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/92">CFP_SR00547_curtin_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/93">CFP_SR00548_mcallister_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/94">CFP_SR00549_neville_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/96">CFP_SR00555_whelan_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/97">CFP_SR00556_lynch_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/98">CFP_SR00558_doherty_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/99">CFP_SR00561_kerrigan_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/100">CFP_SR00576_odonnabhain_2016;</a> <div class="element-text">Youtube video showcasing interviews from our LGBT Archive Collection. Ten voices, eight topics, ranging from First Discovery, Coming Out, The Scene, Marriage and more. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enopWLdeOAw&t=2s">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enopWLdeOAw&t=2s</a></div> <div class="element-text"> Other CFP Material Realting to LGBT Life in Cork: <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/document/130">CFP_SR00418_gerrety_2012</a></div> <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/100"></a> Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 .wav File Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Cork Folklore Project. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Cork Folklore Project. Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound 2010s LGBT Marriage Equality Marriage Referendum Political Activism https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/e69d42285b456a583c982f382a0c4a85.jpg c749eda90e16fa92bb8fcc1bdb0b02f4 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource LGBT Collection Subject The topic of the resource Stories and memories of LGBT life in Cork City and County. Description An account of the resource The LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) collection was launched and created in August 2014 by Stephen Dee and Dermot Casey, researchers at the Cork Folklore Project. The Project was established to record and preserve stories and memories of LGBT life in Cork City and County, with a focus prior to decriminalization in 1993 but also to document the important achievements and struggles that contributed to a society that today is far more accepting of LGBT people. This is proven today with the legalisation of same sex marriage through popular vote and the increased visibility of LGBT people in all areas of public life. The collection’s aims are to explore three main aspects: ‘Personal Recollections’ including but not limited to identity, coming out and experiences of homophobia; ‘Community Stories’ based on certain areas, streets, and forms of social interaction within the LGBT community; and ‘Political Movements’, chronicling political events, motivations and outcomes such as the creation of the Cork-based Irish Gay Rights Movement in 1976, Cork Gay Collective in 1980, and UCC Gay Soc in 1980. Each interview we conducted was unique with each interviewee covering some or all of these topics and with some areas being explored in depth. We hope the material can complement LGBT research in Ireland and also stimulate further interest amongst the public in LGBT history. To date we have distributed some of this material to the public with an audio visual presentation on YouTube and in 2016 in conjunction with Cork City Partnership for LGBT Awareness week we produced a public exhibition of our sound excerpts at Cork City Library. Special thanks to all our interviewees and also to Alvina Cassidy whose research also features in this collection. This LGBT collection of interviews is stored within the Cork Folklore Project permanent oral history archive run in conjunction with UCC’s Folklore and Ethnology Department and Northside Community Enterprises, with both a physical and digital presence. As with all our material, access to full interviews is supervised through a variety of permissions and forms. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012 and onwards Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Interviewees: Derrick Gerrety; Eddie Kay; Christine Browne; Stephen Dee; Dermot Casey; Padraig McCarthy; Clive Davis; Finbarr Kiely; Ken Curtin; Paul McAllister; Jonathan Neville; Tara Whelan; Edmund Lynch; Tony Doherty; Cathal Kerrigan; Barra O’Donnabhain Interviewers: Alvina Cassidy; Stephen Dee; Dermot Casey Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/85">CFP_SR00502_kay_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/86">CFP_SR00516_browne_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/87">CFP_SR00518_dee_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/88">CFP_SR00519_casey_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/89">CFP_SR00521_mccarthy_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/90">CFP_SR00532_davis_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/91">CFP_SR00534_kiely_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/92">CFP_SR00547_curtin_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/93">CFP_SR00548_mcallister_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/94">CFP_SR00549_neville_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/96">CFP_SR00555_whelan_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/97">CFP_SR00556_lynch_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/98">CFP_SR00558_doherty_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/99">CFP_SR00561_kerrigan_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/100">CFP_SR00576_odonnabhain_2016;</a> Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Ethnographic interviews carried out with members of the LGBT community in Cork city and county Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Cork Folklore Project Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Cork Folklore Project Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Cork Folklore Project Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Audio Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 16 .wav files Relation A related resource Youtube video showcasing interviews from our LGBT Archive Collection. Ten voices, eight topics, ranging from First Discovery, Coming Out, The Scene, Marriage and more. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enopWLdeOAw&t=2s">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enopWLdeOAw&t=2s</a> Other CFP Material Realting to LGBT Life in Cork: <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/document/130">CFP_SR00418_gerrety_2012</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Stephen Dee & Dermot Casey Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Finbarr Kiely Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 44min 44sec Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data .wav Bit Rate/Frequency Rate at which bits are transferred (i.e. 96 kbit/s would be FM quality audio) 24bit / 48kHz Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound FK I was actually doing a line with a girl in the early eighties and do you know even when I was with her I still thought I would prefer to be with a guy and that kind of relationship broke down and I didn’t do any more about chasing women after that and eventually I got the courage up to go over there with Ned and then I think from there on I started accepting it and, accepted it in my own head anyway that this head wasn’t going to change like you know its not going to go away at this stage, em, still didn’t really tell anybody other than the guy that I went over with, but one night then I suppose two or three years later I was living a secret life going in there for a while but I told a good friend of mine at the time, he was a married man, much older than me with a family. I told him one night, it was around Christmas, his family had gone to bed and we were still having a few drinks and I told him by the way and even authorised that he could tell everyone the following day if he wanted so it got out around that particular circle eventually. I never told anybody at work as such except one fellow and that was pure accident, em, I used to work down west Cork at the time but I lived in the city but this one character he used to like to come up to Cork for a few drinks, wouldn’t say every week now but every second week and he tried to make a point of meeting me and we used to always meet on Douglas Street, the Gables generally at the time and eh, I’d want to get down to Loafers before closing time do you know just to see who was around, whatever, he used go nightclubbing the nights he would come up, stay in Cork for the night and go nightclubbing. I was always escaping from him around eleven o clock and em, one night he says to me, em, Fi (possibly short for Finbarr) where do you go now, you always go away around this time, where do you go? I’m dying to know, ah I said I just go down the road to some other pup down there. Which one do you go to and maybe I had a few pints that night and I said well Dennis actually its fucking Loafers and I told him straight out then and he got the biggest land of his life, em, he more or less said he thought I would be the last person in the world to be gay but anyway he said you know what I always wanted to see what that pub is like can I come down with you, so he actually came down with me for a drink that night. DC Ah cool! FK And em I still meet the same guy, I’m gone out of that firm nine years now maybe and he’s gone out of it even before me but we still meet regularly for a drink, well when I say regularly maybe once a year, twice a year max and he never told anyone else down in work so as far as I’m concerned work never knew but I was always, I worked in west Cork, lived in Cork city so the two lives didn’t clash you know, I kept my social life completely separate from work life so as far as I know nobody down there knew, for as long as I was there now maybe I’m wrong maybe they did know and they were just been polite you know as I’m a good actor you know. I worked with another fellow in Cork, em, up to three years ago and god he was every day he’d be telling me about his conquests for the night with different various women whatever, I met the guy there last year for a drink and em, there was another member with us who he had got to know we used to meet kind of regularly and he got to know another gay character with me and the gay fellow was going away one night and my friend says where are you going now and he said I’m going down to Loafers and he said uh and when he was gone the other fellow asked me I never knew he was gay and I says sure you never asked him, I suppose not he said, by the way I am too he said whaaaat…(laughter) now a week later I met him again or two weeks later and as it turned out he ended up coming back here and initiated some sexual activity. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Finbarr Kiely: Loafers Bar, Homosexuality, Decriminalisation. Subject The topic of the resource Stories and memories of LGBT life in Cork City and County. Description An account of the resource Finbarr Kiely describes life in Cork for a gay man through the early ‘70s, the ‘90s up to the present. He recalls first realising that he is gay and how he blends this part of his personal life with social and professional lives. He relates stories of the gay cultural scene in Cork, well known bars, characters and events. He discusses decriminalisation and, briefly, gay marriage. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 11 November 2014 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Interviewee: Finbarr Kiely Interviewers: Dermot Casey & Stephen Dee Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CFP_SR00534_kiely_2014 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Cork, Ireland, 1970s-2010s Relation A related resource <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/85">CFP_SR00502_kay_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/86">CFP_SR00516_browne_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/87">CFP_SR00518_dee_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/88">CFP_SR00519_casey_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/89">CFP_SR00521_mccarthy_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/90">CFP_SR00532_davis_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/91">CFP_SR00534_kiely_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/92">CFP_SR00547_curtin_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/93">CFP_SR00548_mcallister_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/94">CFP_SR00549_neville_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/96">CFP_SR00555_whelan_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/97">CFP_SR00556_lynch_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/98">CFP_SR00558_doherty_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/99">CFP_SR00561_kerrigan_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/100">CFP_SR00576_odonnabhain_2016;</a> <div class="element-text">Youtube video showcasing interviews from our LGBT Archive Collection. Ten voices, eight topics, ranging from First Discovery, Coming Out, The Scene, Marriage and more. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enopWLdeOAw&t=2s">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enopWLdeOAw&t=2s</a></div> <div class="element-text"> Other CFP Material Realting to LGBT Life in Cork: <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/document/130">CFP_SR00418_gerrety_2012</a></div> <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/100"></a> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Cork Folklore Project. Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive. Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Cork Folklore Project. Language A language of the resource English Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 .wav File Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s Decriminalisation Homosexuality Loafer's The Othe Place https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/9bc110bd58afd06419818942f7167534.jpg c749eda90e16fa92bb8fcc1bdb0b02f4 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource LGBT Collection Subject The topic of the resource Stories and memories of LGBT life in Cork City and County. Description An account of the resource The LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) collection was launched and created in August 2014 by Stephen Dee and Dermot Casey, researchers at the Cork Folklore Project. The Project was established to record and preserve stories and memories of LGBT life in Cork City and County, with a focus prior to decriminalization in 1993 but also to document the important achievements and struggles that contributed to a society that today is far more accepting of LGBT people. This is proven today with the legalisation of same sex marriage through popular vote and the increased visibility of LGBT people in all areas of public life. The collection’s aims are to explore three main aspects: ‘Personal Recollections’ including but not limited to identity, coming out and experiences of homophobia; ‘Community Stories’ based on certain areas, streets, and forms of social interaction within the LGBT community; and ‘Political Movements’, chronicling political events, motivations and outcomes such as the creation of the Cork-based Irish Gay Rights Movement in 1976, Cork Gay Collective in 1980, and UCC Gay Soc in 1980. Each interview we conducted was unique with each interviewee covering some or all of these topics and with some areas being explored in depth. We hope the material can complement LGBT research in Ireland and also stimulate further interest amongst the public in LGBT history. To date we have distributed some of this material to the public with an audio visual presentation on YouTube and in 2016 in conjunction with Cork City Partnership for LGBT Awareness week we produced a public exhibition of our sound excerpts at Cork City Library. Special thanks to all our interviewees and also to Alvina Cassidy whose research also features in this collection. This LGBT collection of interviews is stored within the Cork Folklore Project permanent oral history archive run in conjunction with UCC’s Folklore and Ethnology Department and Northside Community Enterprises, with both a physical and digital presence. As with all our material, access to full interviews is supervised through a variety of permissions and forms. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2012 and onwards Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Interviewees: Derrick Gerrety; Eddie Kay; Christine Browne; Stephen Dee; Dermot Casey; Padraig McCarthy; Clive Davis; Finbarr Kiely; Ken Curtin; Paul McAllister; Jonathan Neville; Tara Whelan; Edmund Lynch; Tony Doherty; Cathal Kerrigan; Barra O’Donnabhain Interviewers: Alvina Cassidy; Stephen Dee; Dermot Casey Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/85">CFP_SR00502_kay_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/86">CFP_SR00516_browne_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/87">CFP_SR00518_dee_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/88">CFP_SR00519_casey_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/89">CFP_SR00521_mccarthy_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/90">CFP_SR00532_davis_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/91">CFP_SR00534_kiely_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/92">CFP_SR00547_curtin_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/93">CFP_SR00548_mcallister_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/94">CFP_SR00549_neville_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/96">CFP_SR00555_whelan_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/97">CFP_SR00556_lynch_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/98">CFP_SR00558_doherty_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/99">CFP_SR00561_kerrigan_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/100">CFP_SR00576_odonnabhain_2016;</a> Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Ethnographic interviews carried out with members of the LGBT community in Cork city and county Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Cork Folklore Project Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Cork Folklore Project Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Cork Folklore Project Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Audio Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 16 .wav files Relation A related resource Youtube video showcasing interviews from our LGBT Archive Collection. Ten voices, eight topics, ranging from First Discovery, Coming Out, The Scene, Marriage and more. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enopWLdeOAw&t=2s">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enopWLdeOAw&t=2s</a> Other CFP Material Realting to LGBT Life in Cork: <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/document/130">CFP_SR00418_gerrety_2012</a> Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Stephen Dee & Dermot Casey Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Clive Davis Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 54min 48sec Location The location of the interview Cork Folklore Project Farranferris Cork Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data .wav Bit Rate/Frequency Rate at which bits are transferred (i.e. 96 kbit/s would be FM quality audio) 24bit / 48kHz Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound SD So did you have a big coming out experience or was it just a general realisation. CD No I think of a general realisation, I suppose because I am a very private kind of a person, I don’t think I am came dashing out through the snow, or like running out from the back of the bushes or anything like that, I just kept it to myself, and I you know, it wasn’t until later years that I was when I was with my current partner, I told my mum, and I told my family and you know, so I don’t think it was a big coming out event, it wasn’t that big of a deal, I told her, I expected she wasn’t going to be very happy about it but she actually, she was very happy about it, she didn’t mind, you know, I had the bags packed at the door, but you know. And I think it is good in my mind, it was kind of easier, because I was gay with somebody else, that you know because sometimes, I find that in that thing, I think I over thought it for so long, like I was twenty-six about the time I told my mother, it was kind of like all the time thinking, oh Jesus what is she, what will happen if this, if, if , if, if all the ifs and buts were going through my head, and finally I said, look I will do, but I think being with somebody else helped me, you know, and I know now that annoys people when I say that, that you have to be in a relationship to come out, I don’t think that at all, for me it was an easier path to take. SD Okay. DC And did your parents, did your mother have any suspicions, when you were a teenager? CD She asked me before and I looked not at all, that is nonsense you know, but I think, I think that is because I didn’t realise myself, you know, I was kind of fighting with it myself, because in school, you know there was a few bullies and things and they used to call me gay, and I used always be trying to know I am not. I am not different at all I had girlfriends and blah blah blah, you know but I so, she did ask, and she kind of ‘oh well I always knew that’ and that kind of annoyed me even more, because you see, what was it about me that you thought like, how dare you, you know, and I am going through the series of having to be in front of the person when I came out so I have to sit in front of the person to see the reaction, and if their eyes were a bit skewed or if they looked down or looked up, then, oh that person, they are okay with it so I can’t be talking to them but my mother went on a spree of telling everyone, when I told her she just, I think she got up on top of the, the truck at the back of the house and just told everyone, so Clive is gay, Clive is gay, Clive is gay, Clive and I hated that because I wanted to see the reaction you know of people, but I think one of the sadder things about being gay, is that you have to, you are constantly telling people, it is not just when I was twenty one or eighteen or when you are meeting new people, [phone rings in the background] constantly your, your telling people, and you know that is very, you know it is hard, you know that you are always having to tell people about your, you know, about your sexuality. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Clive Davis: Gay life, The Other Place, South Main Street Subject The topic of the resource Stories and memories of LGBT life in Cork City and County. Description An account of the resource Clive talks about his experience coming out as a gay man. He comments about helping others with their difficulties or with coming out but regretting that once out he would never see them again. He talks about the role and history of The Other Place, a café for the gay community. He explains how the idea of a resource centre has had to change as people use the internet instead. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 28 September 2014 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Interviewee: Clive Davis Interviewer: Stephen Dee & Dermot Casey Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CFP_SR00532_davis_2014 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Cork, Laois, Ireland, 1960s-2010s Relation A related resource <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/85">CFP_SR00502_kay_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/86">CFP_SR00516_browne_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/87">CFP_SR00518_dee_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/88">CFP_SR00519_casey_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/89">CFP_SR00521_mccarthy_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/90">CFP_SR00532_davis_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/91">CFP_SR00534_kiely_2014</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/92">CFP_SR00547_curtin_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/93">CFP_SR00548_mcallister_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/94">CFP_SR00549_neville_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/96">CFP_SR00555_whelan_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/97">CFP_SR00556_lynch_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/98">CFP_SR00558_doherty_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/99">CFP_SR00561_kerrigan_2015</a>; <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/100">CFP_SR00576_odonnabhain_2016;</a> <div class="element-text">Youtube video showcasing interviews from our LGBT Archive Collection. Ten voices, eight topics, ranging from First Discovery, Coming Out, The Scene, Marriage and more. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enopWLdeOAw&t=2s">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enopWLdeOAw&t=2s</a></div> <div class="element-text"> Other CFP Material Realting to LGBT Life in Cork: <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/document/130">CFP_SR00418_gerrety_2012</a></div> <a href="http://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/100"></a> Clive's Interview was also used in Penny Johnston: <a href="http://corksmainstreets.corkfolklore.org/cms/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cork's Main Streets Project</a> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Cork Folklore Project . Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Cork Folklore Project. Language A language of the resource English Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 .wav File Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Chambers Clive Davis Coming Out Cork Gay Project Gay life Gay Pride LGBT Linc South Main Street The Other Place https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/c97d0ed0c19070be9c510d67ad04dab3.jpg 737f81f6bdad6486031978735479dada https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/7b99916ff1a3ad18a04fa8a8c8697fc3.wav 90cd3ddb8b11236c3e458d7c24c488e2 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Catching Stories (of Infectious Disease In Ireland) <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Catching-Stories-w-logos-3.png" style="width:350px;height:100px;" alt="Catching-Stories-w-logos-3.png" /> Subject The topic of the resource Life History; Ireland; Health; Communicable diseases; Epidemics; Poliomyelitis; Polio; Postpoliomyelitis syndrome; Tuberculosis; TB; Measles; Diphtheria; COVID-19; Vaccines; Description An account of the resource Catching Stories is a folklore-STEM collaboration project funded through the <a style="color:#4a6ee0;background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" target="_blank" href="https://www.sfi.ie/" class="editor-rtfLink" rel="noreferrer noopener">Science Foundation Ireland</a> (SFI) Discover Programme. The project was concerned with those who had first had experiences of being stricken with the disease, their family members and the public health practitioners who served on the frontline of past epidemics. The diseases the project focused on were: polio, tuberculosis, diphtheria and measles, Spanish flu and COVID-19. The project grew from seed funding through the Irish Research Council and University College Cork's(UCC) College of Arts, Celtic Studies & Social Sciences. This funding enabled the team to collate material in the Cork Folklore Project's archive and create a pilot online resource. In 2022 the project was awarded an SFI Discover grant that allowed the team to undertake new bespoke interviews and grow the online dissemination platform. To date (February 2023), Catching Stories consists of XX interviews. 'Catching Stories' has also been drawn from the Cork Folklore Project Sound Archive for other related material. The project's main output is an online resource (<a style="color:#4a6ee0;background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" target="_blank" href="http://www.catchingstories.org" class="editor-rtfLink" rel="noreferrer noopener">www.catchingstories.org</a>). This website places personal oral testimonies adjacent to scientific information about the diseases. There was also a series of talks and presentations for <a style="color:#4a6ee0;background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" target="_blank" href="https://catchingstories.org/events/" class="editor-rtfLink" rel="noreferrer noopener">Heritage Week 2022, Culture Night 2022 and Science Week 2022</a>. With support from <a style="color:#4a6ee0;background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" target="_blank" href="https://www.ucc.ie/en/apc/" class="editor-rtfLink" rel="noreferrer noopener">APC Microbiome</a>, SFI and UCC's <a style="color:#4a6ee0;background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" target="_blank" href="https://libguides.ucc.ie/library" class="editor-rtfLink" rel="noreferrer noopener">Boole Library,</a> the Catching Stories team curated the interactive multimedia exhibition, Catching Stories of Infectious Disease in Ireland (16 February - 25 June 2023), in UCC's Boole Library. The Exhibition was subsequently taken by the Heatlh Service Executive and displayed in their campuses and buildings throughout Cork and Kerry. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2019-2023 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Interviewees: Lesley Cox; Evelyn Wainwright; Emma Conway Clarke; Michael Hussey; Paul O'Brien, James Hoare Nagle; Edward Tanner; Michael and Theresa O'Sullivan, Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Ireland; 1920s-2020s Relation A related resource Website <a href="https://catchingstories.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">www.catchingstories.org</a> <img src="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/e9fc50934d016888e8a29de8e14d25d4.JPG" style="width:500px;height:250px;" alt="e9fc50934d016888e8a29de8e14d25d4.JPG" /> Here you can engage with the collected material side by side with biomedical commentary from immunologist Dr Elizebeth Brint. Presentation and Listening Events Heritage Week 2022 <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Heritage-Week-2022-Library-talk-300x169.jpg" alt="Heritage-Week-2022-Library-talk-300x169.jpg" /> For Heritage Week project coordinator James Furey gave a presentation of the project at Cork City Library Grand Parade. Culture Night 2022 <img class="size-medium wp-image-407 alignnone" src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Culture-Night-2020-30-300x224.jpg" alt="Culture-Night-2020-30-300x224.jpg" /><img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Culture-Night-2020-6-300x224.jpg" alt="Culture-Night-2020-6-300x224.jpg" /> For Culture night the team went to the streets to set up a ‘time travelling’ vaccination clinic outside the old medical centre on Grattan St Cork City. Willing participants sat on a bench and heard Joe Scanlon’s story of receiving the ‘Branding Iron’, Joe’s term for the vaccine apparatus used in the 1950s. Joe’s story and the event elicited a great response from those who took part. Science Week 2022 <img src="https://corkfolklore.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Science-Week-2022-2-724x1024.png" style="width:200px;height:300px;" alt="Science-Week-2022-2-724x1024.png" /> Celebrate Science Family Day on 13th November 2022 <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/IMG_5840-300x200.jpg" alt="IMG_5840-300x200.jpg" /> Our first outing for Cork Science Festival was at the ‘Celebrate Science’ Family Day at University College Cork’s Western Gateway Building. For this event, we fired up the ‘Time-machine’ to bring participants on a trip to 1958, the day Joe Scanlon received a vaccine, or as Joe calls it, <a href="https://catchingstories.org/getting-the-vaccine/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">‘The Branding Iron’</a>. <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/IMG_5844-300x200.jpg" alt="IMG_5844-300x200.jpg" /> The Catching Stories team held four sessions. We played Joe’s story and quizzed our audience on their knowledge of infectious diseases and their memory of receiving vaccines. There was excellent engagement with both young and old. The younger participants left with a greater understanding of diseases like polio and tuberculosis. And the older members relayed their stories of getting vaccinated and how infectious diseases had encroached on their lives. Science Week Talk UCC Student Hub Those who braved the horrendous rain on November 15th were delighted to shelter in The Shtepps to hear the presentation from James Furey and Beth Brint on how folklore and STEM can work together to bring new perspectives on health education and understanding. Exhibition <img src="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/d3170f22a998193439e53217786f14ea.jpg" style="width:200px;height:300px;" alt="d3170f22a998193439e53217786f14ea.jpg" /> The exhibition in UCC's Boole Library (16 February - 25 June 2023), was an innovative exploration of how to engage people with a topic that does not lend itself too easily to public dissemination. The exhibition foregrounded the human voice through audio installations (Made by Dr Jeffery Weeter), links to interviews, and interaction with physical objects. It invited visitors to join interviewees in the experience of manually ventilating a child with polio throughout the night in 1956 and to move along a waiting-room bench when facing vaccination by the dreaded ‘Branding Iron’ or to imagine the loss of a childhood classmate from measles. Artworks by <a href="https://lesleycoxart.com/earlier-works-3-polio-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Lesley Cox</a> also explore the impact of polio on families and communities. <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1676973595601-scaled.jpg" style="width:350px;height:650px;" alt="1676973595601-scaled.jpg" /><img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1676973595744-scaled.jpg" style="width:300px;height:650px;" alt="1676973595744-scaled.jpg" /> <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1676973595665-scaled.jpg" style="width:650px;height:350px;" alt="1676973595665-scaled.jpg" /> <img src="https://lesleycoxart.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/image29.jpg" style="width:350px;height:650px;" alt="image29.jpg" />(©Lesley Cox) Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource James Furey Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Cork Folklore Project Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Cork Folklore Project Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Audio Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource .wav Files Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Paul O'Brien Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview James Furey Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 40min 10sec Time Summary A summary of an interview given for different time stamps throughout the interview <table> <tbody> <tr> <td> 0.00.00 - 0.01.35 </td> <td> Paul gives his background. Lived in Military Hill Cork City, His father worked for Great Western Railway. Paul attend Christians and Went to University College Cork where he studied medicine </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.01.36 - 0.04.29 </td> <td> In 1952 Pauls final year of secondary school a mobile x-ray unit came. Paul was nominated to be x-rayed first. which showed a shadow on his lungs. Which they told him was TB After spending a short time confined to his bed at home on a course of streptomycin injections and salicylic acid tablets Paul was sent to Heatherside sanitorium in Doneraile Co. Cork. This meant he missed participating in the Muster Schools cup in rugby. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.04.30 - 0.06.32 </td> <td> Paul speaks of Dr Noel Browne’s campaign against TB. Paul also mentions that he never spat up the infection and questions whether he had TB at all. He then goes on to mention his ward mate in the hospital. He a teenage mixed in with adult men </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.06.32 - 0.07.12 </td> <td> Speaks briefly about his mother visiting and bringing him eggs to cure him, and the odd visit from teammates when they were on their way back from games in Limerick. Paul mentions here that he was in Heatherside for four months </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.07.14 - 0.11.00 </td> <td> Paul tells a story about the night before a patient got discharged, they had a party in the ‘Panzer ward’. Songs sung, cigarettes and drink. They were interrupted by the DR Con O’Leary. Paul jumped into a bed with another patient and was subsequently caught by DR. The nest day he was summoned to the DR and told that ‘a nice boy from a good family shouldn’t be acting as such’. He was then moved to Lota on the outskirts of Cork City. Paul mentions that years later in Canada he met the son of the DR and relayed the story to him. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.11.01 - 0.15.16 </td> <td> Paul mentions his undertaking of pre med at UCC and that in his second year he and other student were given the opportunity to help out with the polio epidemic that had taken hold in Cork 1956 for four weeks. Eight students were assigned to ST Finbarr’s hospital to relive the nurses at night-time. Paul describes the fever ward and the hissing of machines and the dark dim light. He then relays a story of how he had to manually ventilate a four-year-old girl called Margot. Who was too small for the iron lungs. Paul further this by explain how Margot lived till she was seventeen and that she had a great relationship with the nurses. Paul has written about this in various publications. Holy Bough, UCC alumni magazine. Margot’s family say the article and contacted Paul. Pairs of students would be assigned a patient and alternate manually bagging and sucking out secretions. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.15.17 - 0.19.15 </td> <td> Paul speaks of how working in the epidemic made them fell. He mentions that his girlfriend at the time (now his wife) was asked to leave her digs. And how another volunteer came home one night to find all his belongings on the doorstep. Paul goes on to talk about how good the nurses were especially Nancy Reardon and Kathleen Stoker He refers to polio outbreak in Chicago a year earlier and how the vaccine was rolled out there. And how the same didn’t happen in Cork. Though he did hear that some were offered the vaccine but not those helping in the hospital, only those who went iin ambulance to retrieve patients. None of his colleagues contracted the disease, one did get meningitis but not extreme case. Mention of Patrick Cockburn’s book ‘Broken Boy’ </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.19.15 - 0.21.42 </td> <td> Pauls talks of the public health response. How Cork took British Laisses faire attitude. How the country was in a panic but the measure did not stack up. He mentions the closer of some aspects of society like sports and swimming pools. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.21.42 - 0.24.47 </td> <td> Paul speaks of a woman called Lou Fitzgerald and how she helped his mother when he was sick. Lou (real name Julia) had been in Cummann na mBan during War of Independence. Talk veers towards independence period </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.24.47 - 0.27.15 </td> <td> Paul speaks of the fear he had when diagnosed with TB. Fear of chest surgery. We speak about Heatherside and Sean O’Riordan </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.27.15 - 0.28.07 </td> <td> Paul brings up how in the sanitorium the topic of a ‘cure’ was always a subject of conversation. Tells story of trying to recreate swizz conditions as a means of getting better. Tis entailed his pushing his bed to the veranda and letting the snow fall on him as he slept. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.28.07- 0.3112 </td> <td> We talk about the crafts that patients did in Heatherside. Wallet making etc. Paul mentions that there was a one man that controlled that. He also mentions that crafts were one way of getting ladies attention. Paul mentions how once he was put on Iduronic acid hydroxide he rapidly improved. He even remembers a Life magazine with drug on front cover being brought into ward. How this drug was the reason the sanitoria closed. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.31.12 - 0.33.30 </td> <td> Some talk about COVID and TB and Polio similarities. Lockdowns ETC. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.33.30 - 0.40.10 </td> <td> End Chat where we talked about our families. Paul mentions his brother Brendan being in the showband the Dixies. INTERVIEW ENDS </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Paul O'Brien Subject The topic of the resource Infectious Disease; Tuberculosis; Polio. Description An account of the resource Paul was born in 1935. His father worked for Great Southern Railway which meant the family moved a lot during Paul’s youth. Paul would call Military Hill in Cork City his ‘home. Paul attended Christians Collage on Wellington Road. Here he was class and rugby team captain. In his final year of secondary school, a mobile x-ray unit came to his school Paul was nominated to be x-rayed first. which showed a shadow on his lungs (TB). After spending a short time confined to his bed at home Paul was sent to Heatherside sanitorium in Doneraile Co. Cork. It is here that Paul made the decision to change from studying law to doing pre-med. During his time as a medical student Cork experienced a polio epidemic. This gave Paul and his colleagues an opportunity to volunteer on the frontline. Paul tells of how after 70 plus years that memories of that time still are at the forefront of his mind. In 1969 Paul moved to Toronto Canada to work as a doctor where he has lived ever since. Paul’s brother is <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/document/446" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Brendan O’Brien</a> singer with the showband The Dixies. Pauls nephew is Daire O’Brien presenter of rugby coverage on RTÉ . Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 22nd August 2022 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Interviewee: Paul O'Brien Interviewer: James Furey Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CFP_SR00838_OBrien _2022 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Ireland; 1940s-1960s Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Cork Folklore Project Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Cork Folklore Project Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Cork Folklore Project Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Audio Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1.wav File Recorded over teams and using a ZOOM H5 recorder. Canada Christian Brother College Cork Christians (CBC) Cork city Covid 19 Dr Con O’Leary Heatherside Sanatrium Hospitals Infectious Disease Polio Polio outbreak 1956 Poliomyelitis Public Health Rugby Sanitoria St Finbarr’s Hospital TB Toronto Tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) UCC University College Cork Vaccination Vaccines https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/99b965993d0856638fdb06cd9c574183.jpg 57a617368d7dd4ac84fd635ecffafdfd https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/e86d0e14410c7b4995f0b42da62aaf33.wav e849b1244ac6ce09d018f80f0c92ce13 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Catching Stories (of Infectious Disease In Ireland) <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Catching-Stories-w-logos-3.png" style="width:350px;height:100px;" alt="Catching-Stories-w-logos-3.png" /> Subject The topic of the resource Life History; Ireland; Health; Communicable diseases; Epidemics; Poliomyelitis; Polio; Postpoliomyelitis syndrome; Tuberculosis; TB; Measles; Diphtheria; COVID-19; Vaccines; Description An account of the resource Catching Stories is a folklore-STEM collaboration project funded through the <a style="color:#4a6ee0;background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" target="_blank" href="https://www.sfi.ie/" class="editor-rtfLink" rel="noreferrer noopener">Science Foundation Ireland</a> (SFI) Discover Programme. The project was concerned with those who had first had experiences of being stricken with the disease, their family members and the public health practitioners who served on the frontline of past epidemics. The diseases the project focused on were: polio, tuberculosis, diphtheria and measles, Spanish flu and COVID-19. The project grew from seed funding through the Irish Research Council and University College Cork's(UCC) College of Arts, Celtic Studies & Social Sciences. This funding enabled the team to collate material in the Cork Folklore Project's archive and create a pilot online resource. In 2022 the project was awarded an SFI Discover grant that allowed the team to undertake new bespoke interviews and grow the online dissemination platform. To date (February 2023), Catching Stories consists of XX interviews. 'Catching Stories' has also been drawn from the Cork Folklore Project Sound Archive for other related material. The project's main output is an online resource (<a style="color:#4a6ee0;background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" target="_blank" href="http://www.catchingstories.org" class="editor-rtfLink" rel="noreferrer noopener">www.catchingstories.org</a>). This website places personal oral testimonies adjacent to scientific information about the diseases. There was also a series of talks and presentations for <a style="color:#4a6ee0;background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" target="_blank" href="https://catchingstories.org/events/" class="editor-rtfLink" rel="noreferrer noopener">Heritage Week 2022, Culture Night 2022 and Science Week 2022</a>. With support from <a style="color:#4a6ee0;background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" target="_blank" href="https://www.ucc.ie/en/apc/" class="editor-rtfLink" rel="noreferrer noopener">APC Microbiome</a>, SFI and UCC's <a style="color:#4a6ee0;background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" target="_blank" href="https://libguides.ucc.ie/library" class="editor-rtfLink" rel="noreferrer noopener">Boole Library,</a> the Catching Stories team curated the interactive multimedia exhibition, Catching Stories of Infectious Disease in Ireland (16 February - 25 June 2023), in UCC's Boole Library. The Exhibition was subsequently taken by the Heatlh Service Executive and displayed in their campuses and buildings throughout Cork and Kerry. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2019-2023 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Interviewees: Lesley Cox; Evelyn Wainwright; Emma Conway Clarke; Michael Hussey; Paul O'Brien, James Hoare Nagle; Edward Tanner; Michael and Theresa O'Sullivan, Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Ireland; 1920s-2020s Relation A related resource Website <a href="https://catchingstories.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">www.catchingstories.org</a> <img src="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/e9fc50934d016888e8a29de8e14d25d4.JPG" style="width:500px;height:250px;" alt="e9fc50934d016888e8a29de8e14d25d4.JPG" /> Here you can engage with the collected material side by side with biomedical commentary from immunologist Dr Elizebeth Brint. Presentation and Listening Events Heritage Week 2022 <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Heritage-Week-2022-Library-talk-300x169.jpg" alt="Heritage-Week-2022-Library-talk-300x169.jpg" /> For Heritage Week project coordinator James Furey gave a presentation of the project at Cork City Library Grand Parade. Culture Night 2022 <img class="size-medium wp-image-407 alignnone" src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Culture-Night-2020-30-300x224.jpg" alt="Culture-Night-2020-30-300x224.jpg" /><img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Culture-Night-2020-6-300x224.jpg" alt="Culture-Night-2020-6-300x224.jpg" /> For Culture night the team went to the streets to set up a ‘time travelling’ vaccination clinic outside the old medical centre on Grattan St Cork City. Willing participants sat on a bench and heard Joe Scanlon’s story of receiving the ‘Branding Iron’, Joe’s term for the vaccine apparatus used in the 1950s. Joe’s story and the event elicited a great response from those who took part. Science Week 2022 <img src="https://corkfolklore.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Science-Week-2022-2-724x1024.png" style="width:200px;height:300px;" alt="Science-Week-2022-2-724x1024.png" /> Celebrate Science Family Day on 13th November 2022 <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/IMG_5840-300x200.jpg" alt="IMG_5840-300x200.jpg" /> Our first outing for Cork Science Festival was at the ‘Celebrate Science’ Family Day at University College Cork’s Western Gateway Building. For this event, we fired up the ‘Time-machine’ to bring participants on a trip to 1958, the day Joe Scanlon received a vaccine, or as Joe calls it, <a href="https://catchingstories.org/getting-the-vaccine/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">‘The Branding Iron’</a>. <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/IMG_5844-300x200.jpg" alt="IMG_5844-300x200.jpg" /> The Catching Stories team held four sessions. We played Joe’s story and quizzed our audience on their knowledge of infectious diseases and their memory of receiving vaccines. There was excellent engagement with both young and old. The younger participants left with a greater understanding of diseases like polio and tuberculosis. And the older members relayed their stories of getting vaccinated and how infectious diseases had encroached on their lives. Science Week Talk UCC Student Hub Those who braved the horrendous rain on November 15th were delighted to shelter in The Shtepps to hear the presentation from James Furey and Beth Brint on how folklore and STEM can work together to bring new perspectives on health education and understanding. Exhibition <img src="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/d3170f22a998193439e53217786f14ea.jpg" style="width:200px;height:300px;" alt="d3170f22a998193439e53217786f14ea.jpg" /> The exhibition in UCC's Boole Library (16 February - 25 June 2023), was an innovative exploration of how to engage people with a topic that does not lend itself too easily to public dissemination. The exhibition foregrounded the human voice through audio installations (Made by Dr Jeffery Weeter), links to interviews, and interaction with physical objects. It invited visitors to join interviewees in the experience of manually ventilating a child with polio throughout the night in 1956 and to move along a waiting-room bench when facing vaccination by the dreaded ‘Branding Iron’ or to imagine the loss of a childhood classmate from measles. Artworks by <a href="https://lesleycoxart.com/earlier-works-3-polio-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Lesley Cox</a> also explore the impact of polio on families and communities. <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1676973595601-scaled.jpg" style="width:350px;height:650px;" alt="1676973595601-scaled.jpg" /><img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1676973595744-scaled.jpg" style="width:300px;height:650px;" alt="1676973595744-scaled.jpg" /> <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1676973595665-scaled.jpg" style="width:650px;height:350px;" alt="1676973595665-scaled.jpg" /> <img src="https://lesleycoxart.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/image29.jpg" style="width:350px;height:650px;" alt="image29.jpg" />(©Lesley Cox) Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource James Furey Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Cork Folklore Project Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Cork Folklore Project Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Audio Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource .wav Files Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Michael Hussey Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview James Furey Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 88min 09sec Location The location of the interview Youghal, Co. Cork, Ireland Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data .wav Bit Rate/Frequency Rate at which bits are transferred (i.e. 96 kbit/s would be FM quality audio) 24bit / 48kHz Time Summary A summary of an interview given for different time stamps throughout the interview <table> <tbody> <tr> <td> 0.00.00 - 0.10.06 </td> <td> Intro - Background. Schooling, Presentation convent, CBS Primary (Horrendous experience), Secondary school CBS not as tough as primary. Actual education. Stresses to say he is not anti-church. Changed to the Vocational school in 3rd year. An absolute eye opener. Group cert then inter cert, stayed on, and petitioned for the school to have leaving cert. Explains the sadistic behaviour of both the lay and Christian brother teachers and the difference in their physical punishment. Fear of going to the toilet. Fear of principal. After School very different. Chatting, TV etc. Loved the American TV shows. Space was big in his early life, first man on the moon, Star Trek etc. Not brought up with traditional Irish values or the GAA. Gravitated to the beach side of town. Morning, Noon, and night. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.10.06- 0.13.20 </td> <td> Childhood Pastimes Summertime gravitated to the beach side of town. Morning, Noon, and night. Played rounders and chainey, Glassey Alleys (Marbles) Pickey (like hopscotch) on the street. Girls would brake glass. Glass was used as currency. Trade broken glass for comics. Coloured glass was worth more. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.13.20- 0.14.23 </td> <td> Cork Examiner newspaper cut in strips and strung up for toilet paper. Micks’ uncle thought that posh, he just tore as he went. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.14.23 - 0.19.37 </td> <td> Mick says from a young age took an interest in the past. Mentions his love for the new in terms of culture. Glam rock and Punk. Not Horselips though. Critical of ‘Reeling in the years’ tv program for their use of contemporary music, RTE never played that music at the time. Radio Luxemburg was the station of choice. Micks’ sister was first in Youghal to wear mini skirt. Mentions that nobody had a problem with Tom Robinson being gay. Questions the modern viewpoint on these topics. Father was critical of modern music called them the ESB bands because they needed to be plugged in </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0. .19.37 - 0.22.00 </td> <td> Uncle with Diphtheria James (Jim) Harris. Lived on Windmill Lane. Came from the ‘Bog’ (Ballyvergan marsh). Jim’s brother Ned worked in the background of BBC radio in London, Jim worked Copy on Fleet Street London. Good relationship with Youghal resident and journalist and notorious communist Claude Cockburn. Jim and Ned’s childhood home had open sewer outside. Jim caught, what Mick thinks was Diphtheria and was brought to the fever hospital on Raheen road Youghal. Other Uncle went to fever hospital in Cork, not as good experience as brother. Horrendous Isolation. Even when he returned to Youghal he wasn’t allowed to hang out with his friends had to live with Grandparents. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.22.01 - 0.26.30 </td> <td> Cont… The house on Sarsfield Road was the place where it all happened. The generation gap between Mick and siblings made for a great melting pot. The family home was Micks mothers’ family home. Mick mentions that everyone had fleas. Everyone when returning to England would check under collar. Lice were called Boodies. Mentions the treatments. Fine tooth comb and late chemicals. Remembers seeing ‘local tramp’ as mass and seeing fleas and live all over his head. Mick brings up the socio-economic element to this. Mentions the work in the town, fishing so-so, more in the textile factories. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.26.31 - 0.30.30 </td> <td> No such thing as pocket money. Comics big thing but are looked down on. Comic swapping. Girls and boys. Mentions the un-pc language in the comic strips. Mick finds it humorous that the younger generation refers to the English as the ‘hun’. Remembers a knock on the door and young boy was looking to swap girl's comics. Mick says that while this was strange it wasn’t an issue. Say that today there is an obsession with words. Mortgage was unpronounceable. Conscious of not lauding poverty. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.30.31 - 0.34.00 </td> <td> Mick’s Father When micks father passed away, lots of stories from local farmers. Mick's father traded cattle. Used his communion money to buy first animal to sell. He was the go-to to trade livestock. Had money when others didn’t. Mentions always having meat compared to neighbours eating sugary bread. Neighbours would call for vegetables. Father was only person on street with a Car. Alcohol major part of his life. The office was the pub. Wonderful but the cost was high. Not just money but health etc. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.34.01 - 0.42.20 </td> <td> Fathers TB Mick’s father was always away working. Mentions Uncles in London sending money. Late 1960s Foot and Mouth outbreak. Mick remembers big sponges in St Raphael’s hospital nearby. And cattle grid to stop the cattle from entering. Mick mentions having a great relationship with patients in the hospital. Father would be away in the cold and wet a lot. Got TB and some stage. Mick not very aware of it. Father was brought Sarsfield's hospital in Glanmire. Very difficult time for family. 7 kids and half the street living in the house. Visitations were difficult. Mother couldn’t drive. Public transport terrible. Social welfare was non-existent. Milkman would drive mother to visit. Mick remembers having to stay in the car park and wave at father from there. Older sister would mind the kids when mother would visit hospital. Mick remembers Shirley Temple and the Marx brother helping to take attention away but knowing that something was wrong. To this day Shirley Temple triggers memories of his father’s TB. From his time in hospital micks, father made lots of picture frames and models from lollypop sticks and matchsticks. But they had no sideboard to put them on. No trappings of affluence in house. Warm love. No wallpaper but mother painted the walls artistically. Mick mentions that when he moved and took over the house that when he was modernising it he stripped back wallpaper that revealed his mother’s paintings. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.42.21 - 0.44.45 </td> <td> The House No bathroom in the house. All impeccably clean though. Everything worked off one cold tap. No central heating. Bathed in tin bath. Everything was used. Nothing was disposable. Hand-me-downs. Element of embarrassment having to share books with siblings. Mentions alcohol again. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.44.46 - 0.48.45 </td> <td> Mick always had an interest in people’s lives and history. Talks about the class element. The 1960s didn’t happen here till the 1970s. Extra money went around. Music was the big thing. Don’t get that buzz anymore from music as he did. It was part of your upbringing. Crossed barriers. Depending on the genre you lived that way. Although Mick studied folklore, he still has a strange relationship with Irish. Hangover from schooling. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.48.46 - 0.59.55 </td> <td> Father's TB cont… Mick found out later about the stigma associated with a house having TB. And still is to this day. Compares it to the early reactions to COVID in 2020. Say’s it was interesting to watch the attitude of people’s inference that there was something wrong with you if you got COVID. Mick remembers a social welfare guy called Mulligan calling the house when his father was in hospital. With what looked like 'a priests incense burner’ burning sulphur to kill the TB. Draws comparison to neighbour being brought away to hospital with COVID by the army. Found these public health measures to be intrusive. Speaks on TB prevention. Careful of overcoats, wrap up well, stay away from damp clothes, and spitting (huge prevalence of spitting, Mentions the spittoon in pubs). A crack in a cup was a no-no. even today he frets over cracks in cups. Mentions the sharing of the butt of an apple or the lick of an ice cream cone, these could have caused spread. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.59.56 - 1.03.43 </td> <td> Polio and Vaccines Talks of speaking to a woman from Cork during COVID who had strong memories of being confined to the garden during the polio outbreak in the 1950s. Remembers the Cork polio charity that one would donate to. Does remember some people with polio but not anyone close. Remembers getting the booster. Has a scar from the 6in1 on his arm. And remembers the sugar cube. Talks on modern views on vaccines wouldn’t be anti-vax. Is naturally sceptical in general. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 1.03.44- 1.10.05 </td> <td> Mick Talks about how happy his childhood was and life in general, but the hardships crept in. Talks about an RTE film ‘A week in the life of Martin Cluxton’ having a profound effect on him. Film about the reality of industrial schools. Talks of politician Brian Linehan visiting a Magdalene laundry his driver said that Linehan said ‘get me the fuck out of here’ complicity of the state and Doctors stranglehold on the wellbeing of certain elements of the country. Divorce spoken of by his mother. No mention of abortion. Mother very liberal but religious. Everyone was religious. Mick's brother became a priest, cannon question his religiousness. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 1.10.06 - 1.22.00 </td> <td> Town and Country. Living in the corporation estate was mixed with time out of the bog in the grandparents’ place. Tilling hay etc. rented piece of land there. Remembers richer farmers calling Christmas week putting the squeeze on. Remembers family telling them to sling their hook. The bog was where the Army rifle range was. So, shooting practice was happening. Speaks of the old farmers maintaining the land better than any modern ecologist. Farming wasn’t enough to live off, so they fished also. The beach was divided into ‘Berths’ and Harris’ Berth by butts of the rifle range, which was prominent and belonged to his family. No town people allowed fish there. House was by the main road. Land closer to beach was prone to flooding. ‘The long acre’, which had an element of shame. Tells story of a rich farmer's son and a lowly farmer's daughter's love affair and being divided. ‘Sanctuary no shooting’ was for the gun clubs where they raised birds to shoot. Spring well near cottage ‘above’ the train tracks. Finest fresh water and lots of farmers came for it. Recalls a man named Cox that dug down and syphoned off the well. Uncle went a sorted it out without the authorities. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 1.22.01 - 0.00.00 </td> <td> Speaks of the younger generation does not have awareness of what they have. Speaks of how the obsession with the overarching church element of society is. Knows it was there but it was not the whole thing. Speaks of old fellas using cling film as contraception. That it wasn’t black and white. The 1970s brought colour. There was a church and state but also the local. Class distinction went down to the level of neighbours. Especially pre-1970s. Mentions uncle becoming ‘Navi’ in England and did not contact the family for 26 years. When he returned could not get his head around the mixing of classes in modern society. [Interview Ends] </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael Hussey Subject The topic of the resource Infectious Disease; Tuberculosis Description An account of the resource This interview was completed for the Catching Stories of infectious Disease in Ireland project. Mick spoke of his father having TB and the effect that had on his family life. His father contracted TB when Mick was 8 or 9 (1967-68). Mick mentions the toll it had on his mother, the difficulty of visiting and the stigma that having TB in your house brought. He also mentions the over baring public health measures. Mick also mentions his uncles contracting Diphtheria before this. Throughout the interview, Mick brings up how all this fit in Irish society at the time. And how he perceived it then and now versus what he sees as the modern consensus of mid-20th century Ireland Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 11 August 2022 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Interviewee: Michael Hussey Interviewer: James Furey Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CFP_SR00837_hussey_2022 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Ireland; 1920s -2020s Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Cork Folklore Project Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Cork Folklore Project Sound Archive Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Cork Folklore Project Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Cork Folklore Project Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Audio Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 .wav file https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/96de18b7842b6a2ff3219d6fd1219a7d.jpg 328fc840557cf068feedc0eaf1a835d6 https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/3aa497532aca8d941e617768ca1ca0be.mp3 497f20a8e38e129315bb5a8a83a97a6f Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Catching Stories (of Infectious Disease In Ireland) <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Catching-Stories-w-logos-3.png" style="width:350px;height:100px;" alt="Catching-Stories-w-logos-3.png" /> Subject The topic of the resource Life History; Ireland; Health; Communicable diseases; Epidemics; Poliomyelitis; Polio; Postpoliomyelitis syndrome; Tuberculosis; TB; Measles; Diphtheria; COVID-19; Vaccines; Description An account of the resource Catching Stories is a folklore-STEM collaboration project funded through the <a style="color:#4a6ee0;background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" target="_blank" href="https://www.sfi.ie/" class="editor-rtfLink" rel="noreferrer noopener">Science Foundation Ireland</a> (SFI) Discover Programme. The project was concerned with those who had first had experiences of being stricken with the disease, their family members and the public health practitioners who served on the frontline of past epidemics. The diseases the project focused on were: polio, tuberculosis, diphtheria and measles, Spanish flu and COVID-19. The project grew from seed funding through the Irish Research Council and University College Cork's(UCC) College of Arts, Celtic Studies & Social Sciences. This funding enabled the team to collate material in the Cork Folklore Project's archive and create a pilot online resource. In 2022 the project was awarded an SFI Discover grant that allowed the team to undertake new bespoke interviews and grow the online dissemination platform. To date (February 2023), Catching Stories consists of XX interviews. 'Catching Stories' has also been drawn from the Cork Folklore Project Sound Archive for other related material. The project's main output is an online resource (<a style="color:#4a6ee0;background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" target="_blank" href="http://www.catchingstories.org" class="editor-rtfLink" rel="noreferrer noopener">www.catchingstories.org</a>). This website places personal oral testimonies adjacent to scientific information about the diseases. There was also a series of talks and presentations for <a style="color:#4a6ee0;background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" target="_blank" href="https://catchingstories.org/events/" class="editor-rtfLink" rel="noreferrer noopener">Heritage Week 2022, Culture Night 2022 and Science Week 2022</a>. With support from <a style="color:#4a6ee0;background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" target="_blank" href="https://www.ucc.ie/en/apc/" class="editor-rtfLink" rel="noreferrer noopener">APC Microbiome</a>, SFI and UCC's <a style="color:#4a6ee0;background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" target="_blank" href="https://libguides.ucc.ie/library" class="editor-rtfLink" rel="noreferrer noopener">Boole Library,</a> the Catching Stories team curated the interactive multimedia exhibition, Catching Stories of Infectious Disease in Ireland (16 February - 25 June 2023), in UCC's Boole Library. The Exhibition was subsequently taken by the Heatlh Service Executive and displayed in their campuses and buildings throughout Cork and Kerry. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2019-2023 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Interviewees: Lesley Cox; Evelyn Wainwright; Emma Conway Clarke; Michael Hussey; Paul O'Brien, James Hoare Nagle; Edward Tanner; Michael and Theresa O'Sullivan, Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Ireland; 1920s-2020s Relation A related resource Website <a href="https://catchingstories.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">www.catchingstories.org</a> <img src="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/e9fc50934d016888e8a29de8e14d25d4.JPG" style="width:500px;height:250px;" alt="e9fc50934d016888e8a29de8e14d25d4.JPG" /> Here you can engage with the collected material side by side with biomedical commentary from immunologist Dr Elizebeth Brint. Presentation and Listening Events Heritage Week 2022 <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Heritage-Week-2022-Library-talk-300x169.jpg" alt="Heritage-Week-2022-Library-talk-300x169.jpg" /> For Heritage Week project coordinator James Furey gave a presentation of the project at Cork City Library Grand Parade. Culture Night 2022 <img class="size-medium wp-image-407 alignnone" src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Culture-Night-2020-30-300x224.jpg" alt="Culture-Night-2020-30-300x224.jpg" /><img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Culture-Night-2020-6-300x224.jpg" alt="Culture-Night-2020-6-300x224.jpg" /> For Culture night the team went to the streets to set up a ‘time travelling’ vaccination clinic outside the old medical centre on Grattan St Cork City. Willing participants sat on a bench and heard Joe Scanlon’s story of receiving the ‘Branding Iron’, Joe’s term for the vaccine apparatus used in the 1950s. Joe’s story and the event elicited a great response from those who took part. Science Week 2022 <img src="https://corkfolklore.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Science-Week-2022-2-724x1024.png" style="width:200px;height:300px;" alt="Science-Week-2022-2-724x1024.png" /> Celebrate Science Family Day on 13th November 2022 <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/IMG_5840-300x200.jpg" alt="IMG_5840-300x200.jpg" /> Our first outing for Cork Science Festival was at the ‘Celebrate Science’ Family Day at University College Cork’s Western Gateway Building. For this event, we fired up the ‘Time-machine’ to bring participants on a trip to 1958, the day Joe Scanlon received a vaccine, or as Joe calls it, <a href="https://catchingstories.org/getting-the-vaccine/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">‘The Branding Iron’</a>. <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/IMG_5844-300x200.jpg" alt="IMG_5844-300x200.jpg" /> The Catching Stories team held four sessions. We played Joe’s story and quizzed our audience on their knowledge of infectious diseases and their memory of receiving vaccines. There was excellent engagement with both young and old. The younger participants left with a greater understanding of diseases like polio and tuberculosis. And the older members relayed their stories of getting vaccinated and how infectious diseases had encroached on their lives. Science Week Talk UCC Student Hub Those who braved the horrendous rain on November 15th were delighted to shelter in The Shtepps to hear the presentation from James Furey and Beth Brint on how folklore and STEM can work together to bring new perspectives on health education and understanding. Exhibition <img src="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/d3170f22a998193439e53217786f14ea.jpg" style="width:200px;height:300px;" alt="d3170f22a998193439e53217786f14ea.jpg" /> The exhibition in UCC's Boole Library (16 February - 25 June 2023), was an innovative exploration of how to engage people with a topic that does not lend itself too easily to public dissemination. The exhibition foregrounded the human voice through audio installations (Made by Dr Jeffery Weeter), links to interviews, and interaction with physical objects. It invited visitors to join interviewees in the experience of manually ventilating a child with polio throughout the night in 1956 and to move along a waiting-room bench when facing vaccination by the dreaded ‘Branding Iron’ or to imagine the loss of a childhood classmate from measles. Artworks by <a href="https://lesleycoxart.com/earlier-works-3-polio-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Lesley Cox</a> also explore the impact of polio on families and communities. <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1676973595601-scaled.jpg" style="width:350px;height:650px;" alt="1676973595601-scaled.jpg" /><img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1676973595744-scaled.jpg" style="width:300px;height:650px;" alt="1676973595744-scaled.jpg" /> <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1676973595665-scaled.jpg" style="width:650px;height:350px;" alt="1676973595665-scaled.jpg" /> <img src="https://lesleycoxart.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/image29.jpg" style="width:350px;height:650px;" alt="image29.jpg" />(©Lesley Cox) Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource James Furey Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Cork Folklore Project Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Cork Folklore Project Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Audio Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource .wav Files Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Pauline Matthews Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 9 min 53 sec Location The location of the interview Cork, Ireland Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data .mp3 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Pauline Matthews Subject The topic of the resource Tuberculosis Description An account of the resource Pauline Matthews was born in 1950 in the Ballintemple area of Cork city. When she was an infant her mother contracted tuberculosis and was confined to the chest hospital in Mallow. Shortly afterwards, Pauline contracted the disease, leading her to be hospitalised in St Raphel's Montenotte. Pauline's father was in the merchant navy, meaning he was away for long periods. After an accident at sea, he too was hospitalised, in Australia. The loss of the father's income meant that Pauline's aunt had to not only be the sole visitor to her sister and niece in the hospital but also, hold down a job to provide for her three relatives. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 10 February 2020 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Interviewee: Pauline Matthews Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Ireland; Cork; 1950s; Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Cork Folklore Project Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Cork Folklore Project Sound Archive Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Cork Folklore Project Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Cork Folklore Project Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Audio Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 .mp3 file Health Heatherside Sanatrium Merchant Navy Public Health Sanatorium TB The Green Door Tuberculosis (TB) https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/c9271efa146c269f9dd41bd326e6340b.JPG 32da2fb41868423d653707d79e87118d Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Catching Stories (of Infectious Disease In Ireland) <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Catching-Stories-w-logos-3.png" style="width:350px;height:100px;" alt="Catching-Stories-w-logos-3.png" /> Subject The topic of the resource Life History; Ireland; Health; Communicable diseases; Epidemics; Poliomyelitis; Polio; Postpoliomyelitis syndrome; Tuberculosis; TB; Measles; Diphtheria; COVID-19; Vaccines; Description An account of the resource Catching Stories is a folklore-STEM collaboration project funded through the <a style="color:#4a6ee0;background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" target="_blank" href="https://www.sfi.ie/" class="editor-rtfLink" rel="noreferrer noopener">Science Foundation Ireland</a> (SFI) Discover Programme. The project was concerned with those who had first had experiences of being stricken with the disease, their family members and the public health practitioners who served on the frontline of past epidemics. The diseases the project focused on were: polio, tuberculosis, diphtheria and measles, Spanish flu and COVID-19. The project grew from seed funding through the Irish Research Council and University College Cork's(UCC) College of Arts, Celtic Studies & Social Sciences. This funding enabled the team to collate material in the Cork Folklore Project's archive and create a pilot online resource. In 2022 the project was awarded an SFI Discover grant that allowed the team to undertake new bespoke interviews and grow the online dissemination platform. To date (February 2023), Catching Stories consists of XX interviews. 'Catching Stories' has also been drawn from the Cork Folklore Project Sound Archive for other related material. The project's main output is an online resource (<a style="color:#4a6ee0;background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" target="_blank" href="http://www.catchingstories.org" class="editor-rtfLink" rel="noreferrer noopener">www.catchingstories.org</a>). This website places personal oral testimonies adjacent to scientific information about the diseases. There was also a series of talks and presentations for <a style="color:#4a6ee0;background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" target="_blank" href="https://catchingstories.org/events/" class="editor-rtfLink" rel="noreferrer noopener">Heritage Week 2022, Culture Night 2022 and Science Week 2022</a>. With support from <a style="color:#4a6ee0;background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" target="_blank" href="https://www.ucc.ie/en/apc/" class="editor-rtfLink" rel="noreferrer noopener">APC Microbiome</a>, SFI and UCC's <a style="color:#4a6ee0;background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" target="_blank" href="https://libguides.ucc.ie/library" class="editor-rtfLink" rel="noreferrer noopener">Boole Library,</a> the Catching Stories team curated the interactive multimedia exhibition, Catching Stories of Infectious Disease in Ireland (16 February - 25 June 2023), in UCC's Boole Library. The Exhibition was subsequently taken by the Heatlh Service Executive and displayed in their campuses and buildings throughout Cork and Kerry. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2019-2023 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Interviewees: Lesley Cox; Evelyn Wainwright; Emma Conway Clarke; Michael Hussey; Paul O'Brien, James Hoare Nagle; Edward Tanner; Michael and Theresa O'Sullivan, Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Ireland; 1920s-2020s Relation A related resource Website <a href="https://catchingstories.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">www.catchingstories.org</a> <img src="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/e9fc50934d016888e8a29de8e14d25d4.JPG" style="width:500px;height:250px;" alt="e9fc50934d016888e8a29de8e14d25d4.JPG" /> Here you can engage with the collected material side by side with biomedical commentary from immunologist Dr Elizebeth Brint. Presentation and Listening Events Heritage Week 2022 <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Heritage-Week-2022-Library-talk-300x169.jpg" alt="Heritage-Week-2022-Library-talk-300x169.jpg" /> For Heritage Week project coordinator James Furey gave a presentation of the project at Cork City Library Grand Parade. Culture Night 2022 <img class="size-medium wp-image-407 alignnone" src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Culture-Night-2020-30-300x224.jpg" alt="Culture-Night-2020-30-300x224.jpg" /><img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Culture-Night-2020-6-300x224.jpg" alt="Culture-Night-2020-6-300x224.jpg" /> For Culture night the team went to the streets to set up a ‘time travelling’ vaccination clinic outside the old medical centre on Grattan St Cork City. Willing participants sat on a bench and heard Joe Scanlon’s story of receiving the ‘Branding Iron’, Joe’s term for the vaccine apparatus used in the 1950s. Joe’s story and the event elicited a great response from those who took part. Science Week 2022 <img src="https://corkfolklore.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Science-Week-2022-2-724x1024.png" style="width:200px;height:300px;" alt="Science-Week-2022-2-724x1024.png" /> Celebrate Science Family Day on 13th November 2022 <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/IMG_5840-300x200.jpg" alt="IMG_5840-300x200.jpg" /> Our first outing for Cork Science Festival was at the ‘Celebrate Science’ Family Day at University College Cork’s Western Gateway Building. For this event, we fired up the ‘Time-machine’ to bring participants on a trip to 1958, the day Joe Scanlon received a vaccine, or as Joe calls it, <a href="https://catchingstories.org/getting-the-vaccine/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">‘The Branding Iron’</a>. <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/IMG_5844-300x200.jpg" alt="IMG_5844-300x200.jpg" /> The Catching Stories team held four sessions. We played Joe’s story and quizzed our audience on their knowledge of infectious diseases and their memory of receiving vaccines. There was excellent engagement with both young and old. The younger participants left with a greater understanding of diseases like polio and tuberculosis. And the older members relayed their stories of getting vaccinated and how infectious diseases had encroached on their lives. Science Week Talk UCC Student Hub Those who braved the horrendous rain on November 15th were delighted to shelter in The Shtepps to hear the presentation from James Furey and Beth Brint on how folklore and STEM can work together to bring new perspectives on health education and understanding. Exhibition <img src="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/d3170f22a998193439e53217786f14ea.jpg" style="width:200px;height:300px;" alt="d3170f22a998193439e53217786f14ea.jpg" /> The exhibition in UCC's Boole Library (16 February - 25 June 2023), was an innovative exploration of how to engage people with a topic that does not lend itself too easily to public dissemination. The exhibition foregrounded the human voice through audio installations (Made by Dr Jeffery Weeter), links to interviews, and interaction with physical objects. It invited visitors to join interviewees in the experience of manually ventilating a child with polio throughout the night in 1956 and to move along a waiting-room bench when facing vaccination by the dreaded ‘Branding Iron’ or to imagine the loss of a childhood classmate from measles. Artworks by <a href="https://lesleycoxart.com/earlier-works-3-polio-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Lesley Cox</a> also explore the impact of polio on families and communities. <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1676973595601-scaled.jpg" style="width:350px;height:650px;" alt="1676973595601-scaled.jpg" /><img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1676973595744-scaled.jpg" style="width:300px;height:650px;" alt="1676973595744-scaled.jpg" /> <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1676973595665-scaled.jpg" style="width:650px;height:350px;" alt="1676973595665-scaled.jpg" /> <img src="https://lesleycoxart.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/image29.jpg" style="width:350px;height:650px;" alt="image29.jpg" />(©Lesley Cox) Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource James Furey Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Cork Folklore Project Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Cork Folklore Project Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Audio Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource .wav Files Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Emma Clarke Conway Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview James Furey Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 51m 37s Location The location of the interview Online Through MS Teams Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data .wav Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Emma Clarke Conway Subject The topic of the resource Polio Description An account of the resource Emma is the Communications and development officer for <a href="https://polio.ie/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Polio Survivors Ireland</a>. She spoke about the history of polio in Ireland, about the work PSI do and the current state of polio in Ireland. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 8 August 2022 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Interviewee: Emma Clarke Conway Interviewer: James Furey Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CFP_SR00836_clarkeconway_2022 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Ireland; 1920s -2020s Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Cork Folklore Project Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Cork Folklore Project Sound Archive Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Cork Folklore Project Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Cork Folklore Project Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Audio Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 .wav file Communicable diseases Health Polio Polio outbreak 1956 Polio Survivors Ireland Poliomyelitis Postpoliomyelitis syndrome stigma Trauma https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/6453131606b9d5bd846208cd94698229.mp3 5a9eedfbf2e282ba7a009e26d6150a4c Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Mary O’Donovan Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Catherine Fray Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 43m51 s Location The location of the interview Cara House, Redemption Road, Cork Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Cassette Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound Sample of Transcript: C F: Did you have your children at home Mary? M O D: I had mine at home. C F: All of them M O D: All of them, yes. C F: And did you have the help of the local lady? M O D: Pardon? C F: Did you have the help of a local woman? -- M O D: I had? C F: For bringing them into this world? Who would she of been? M O D: Well, if there is a girl here in the room here next to us, Annie Murphy, her mother was a midwife for three or four of my children. The last of mine, and the one’s previous to that there. Of course she’d be a Mrs [long pause] I can’t remember you know, but they were like, oh I can’t remember her name now. But Mrs. Murphy anyway was at three or four of my last children, she lived over there on St. Mary’s rd. And her daughters a patient here at the moment. Annie Murphy I don’t know if she is here yet or not. C F: Oh I think I know who you are talking about. I do. M O D: Yeah. C F: I do, I think I do, is she from St. Brendan’s road? M O D: No, no, no, the house that Mary, Annie Murphy, was born and reared in and she is a patient here so now you can imagine. C F: Ok Mary. M O D: And she is the last of her family there all of them, all of them dead, but Anne is, and she still alive. But you know the way at the moment, she’s a patient at the moment here – C F: Oh I see ok. M O D: And her name is Anne Murphy C F: Alright Mary. And can you remember, can you tell me some things about the Black and Tans, what they did? M O D: Oh don’t be talking girl, they done terrible things, first of all you know they shot Tomás Mac Curtain. C F: Right. M O D: You know that don’t you. C F: I do. M O D: Yeah, I was working with him at the time, and the first, that night, he wouldn’t stop, selling [phrase unintelligible], himself inside the counter and I was, twas like, in the month of March you know and I was going out and it was wet and dull and it was misty. And I was going out, and the factory was at the back of that shop, that I told you. And I was going out, I was finishing off an order or something myself and I was going out and this man was singing outside the shop door. Ballad singing, it was around that time you know now. And I was going out the door and Tomás, the Lord have mercy on him now. He called me back and he said give that to the poor fella singing outside the door. I dunno was it a six millimetre[??] or a schilling he gave me now. He gave me something to hand to the poor singer outside the door. And I said you know now. And he was singing ‘Wrap the Green Flag Around Me Boys’, that’s the song he was singing. C F: Right. M O D: He was singing that song but I handed him that anyway outside the door, it was quiet a coincidence wasn’t it? -- C F: Back in the day -- M O D: It was only that night, that he was murdered. The Black and [Tans], his wife was expecting, a baby, sure they had twins after, the same night, [phrase unintelligible] they shot her [means him] dead, they shot him dead. On the 17th around then, I dunno the exact date now, in the month of March. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Mary O’Donovan Description An account of the resource Mary is an elderly woman who recalls her life history. She feels that her memory is not so good, but she clearly recalls personal rather than more general events. Mary was born (circa 1901) in Sarsfield Terrace. Her aunt was ‘a lady’s companion’ to the wife of a colonel who lived in Sunday’s Well. Her grandmother wore a black cape and a black bonnet. The family moved to Hibernian Buildings, and then to Church Avenue, Chapel Hill. Her mother was a dressmaker. As a young woman she worked as a shirtmaker in Dwyer’s factory, and then met her husband. (She states later that she got married in 1922). She and her husband lived with her mother before the corporation gave her a house in Farranferris Avenue. She remembers a fragment of a skipping rhyme she sang as a child. She briefly describes the religious ceremony of ‘churching’, which she describes in a positive light. Mary worked for Tomás Mac Curtain, the Lord Mayor of Cork who was shot by the Black and Tans, and she describes her last day at work with him before he was killed. She sings a verse of ‘Wrap The Green Flag Round Me, Boys’, which a street singer had sung earlier in the day before Mac Curtain was shot. As a Girl Guide she joined others saying the Rosary outside a prison in Cork where Republican prisoners were on hunger strike. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 11.05.1998 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CFP_SR00197_odonovan_1998 Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Cork Folklore Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Cork Folklore Project Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Cork Folklore Project Language A language of the resource English Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Cork Folklore Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Cork Folklore Project Ballad Singers Bonfire Night Churching Clothes Dwyer’s factory Farranferris Avenue. Hunger Strike Mary O’Donovan Midwife Poetry Republicans Rosary Sarsfield Terrace Tomás Mac Curtain War of Independence https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/030f704d44e51091472e48327d92e8c9.jpg 5bb8770ee67294331e7599ad4bdeeaad https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/120e6df0256155490674aa72c645376e.jpg f13ca3457f0d650d36804570b1ca1a41 https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/76e2ec556d097cd1d3f8163d059f0d33.mp3 95452a9a2b651c45e763d9352aa3ba66 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Catching Stories (of Infectious Disease In Ireland) <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Catching-Stories-w-logos-3.png" style="width:350px;height:100px;" alt="Catching-Stories-w-logos-3.png" /> Subject The topic of the resource Life History; Ireland; Health; Communicable diseases; Epidemics; Poliomyelitis; Polio; Postpoliomyelitis syndrome; Tuberculosis; TB; Measles; Diphtheria; COVID-19; Vaccines; Description An account of the resource Catching Stories is a folklore-STEM collaboration project funded through the <a style="color:#4a6ee0;background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" target="_blank" href="https://www.sfi.ie/" class="editor-rtfLink" rel="noreferrer noopener">Science Foundation Ireland</a> (SFI) Discover Programme. The project was concerned with those who had first had experiences of being stricken with the disease, their family members and the public health practitioners who served on the frontline of past epidemics. The diseases the project focused on were: polio, tuberculosis, diphtheria and measles, Spanish flu and COVID-19. The project grew from seed funding through the Irish Research Council and University College Cork's(UCC) College of Arts, Celtic Studies & Social Sciences. This funding enabled the team to collate material in the Cork Folklore Project's archive and create a pilot online resource. In 2022 the project was awarded an SFI Discover grant that allowed the team to undertake new bespoke interviews and grow the online dissemination platform. To date (February 2023), Catching Stories consists of XX interviews. 'Catching Stories' has also been drawn from the Cork Folklore Project Sound Archive for other related material. The project's main output is an online resource (<a style="color:#4a6ee0;background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" target="_blank" href="http://www.catchingstories.org" class="editor-rtfLink" rel="noreferrer noopener">www.catchingstories.org</a>). This website places personal oral testimonies adjacent to scientific information about the diseases. There was also a series of talks and presentations for <a style="color:#4a6ee0;background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" target="_blank" href="https://catchingstories.org/events/" class="editor-rtfLink" rel="noreferrer noopener">Heritage Week 2022, Culture Night 2022 and Science Week 2022</a>. With support from <a style="color:#4a6ee0;background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" target="_blank" href="https://www.ucc.ie/en/apc/" class="editor-rtfLink" rel="noreferrer noopener">APC Microbiome</a>, SFI and UCC's <a style="color:#4a6ee0;background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" target="_blank" href="https://libguides.ucc.ie/library" class="editor-rtfLink" rel="noreferrer noopener">Boole Library,</a> the Catching Stories team curated the interactive multimedia exhibition, Catching Stories of Infectious Disease in Ireland (16 February - 25 June 2023), in UCC's Boole Library. The Exhibition was subsequently taken by the Heatlh Service Executive and displayed in their campuses and buildings throughout Cork and Kerry. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2019-2023 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Interviewees: Lesley Cox; Evelyn Wainwright; Emma Conway Clarke; Michael Hussey; Paul O'Brien, James Hoare Nagle; Edward Tanner; Michael and Theresa O'Sullivan, Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Ireland; 1920s-2020s Relation A related resource Website <a href="https://catchingstories.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">www.catchingstories.org</a> <img src="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/e9fc50934d016888e8a29de8e14d25d4.JPG" style="width:500px;height:250px;" alt="e9fc50934d016888e8a29de8e14d25d4.JPG" /> Here you can engage with the collected material side by side with biomedical commentary from immunologist Dr Elizebeth Brint. Presentation and Listening Events Heritage Week 2022 <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Heritage-Week-2022-Library-talk-300x169.jpg" alt="Heritage-Week-2022-Library-talk-300x169.jpg" /> For Heritage Week project coordinator James Furey gave a presentation of the project at Cork City Library Grand Parade. Culture Night 2022 <img class="size-medium wp-image-407 alignnone" src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Culture-Night-2020-30-300x224.jpg" alt="Culture-Night-2020-30-300x224.jpg" /><img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Culture-Night-2020-6-300x224.jpg" alt="Culture-Night-2020-6-300x224.jpg" /> For Culture night the team went to the streets to set up a ‘time travelling’ vaccination clinic outside the old medical centre on Grattan St Cork City. Willing participants sat on a bench and heard Joe Scanlon’s story of receiving the ‘Branding Iron’, Joe’s term for the vaccine apparatus used in the 1950s. Joe’s story and the event elicited a great response from those who took part. Science Week 2022 <img src="https://corkfolklore.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Science-Week-2022-2-724x1024.png" style="width:200px;height:300px;" alt="Science-Week-2022-2-724x1024.png" /> Celebrate Science Family Day on 13th November 2022 <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/IMG_5840-300x200.jpg" alt="IMG_5840-300x200.jpg" /> Our first outing for Cork Science Festival was at the ‘Celebrate Science’ Family Day at University College Cork’s Western Gateway Building. For this event, we fired up the ‘Time-machine’ to bring participants on a trip to 1958, the day Joe Scanlon received a vaccine, or as Joe calls it, <a href="https://catchingstories.org/getting-the-vaccine/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">‘The Branding Iron’</a>. <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/IMG_5844-300x200.jpg" alt="IMG_5844-300x200.jpg" /> The Catching Stories team held four sessions. We played Joe’s story and quizzed our audience on their knowledge of infectious diseases and their memory of receiving vaccines. There was excellent engagement with both young and old. The younger participants left with a greater understanding of diseases like polio and tuberculosis. And the older members relayed their stories of getting vaccinated and how infectious diseases had encroached on their lives. Science Week Talk UCC Student Hub Those who braved the horrendous rain on November 15th were delighted to shelter in The Shtepps to hear the presentation from James Furey and Beth Brint on how folklore and STEM can work together to bring new perspectives on health education and understanding. Exhibition <img src="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/d3170f22a998193439e53217786f14ea.jpg" style="width:200px;height:300px;" alt="d3170f22a998193439e53217786f14ea.jpg" /> The exhibition in UCC's Boole Library (16 February - 25 June 2023), was an innovative exploration of how to engage people with a topic that does not lend itself too easily to public dissemination. The exhibition foregrounded the human voice through audio installations (Made by Dr Jeffery Weeter), links to interviews, and interaction with physical objects. It invited visitors to join interviewees in the experience of manually ventilating a child with polio throughout the night in 1956 and to move along a waiting-room bench when facing vaccination by the dreaded ‘Branding Iron’ or to imagine the loss of a childhood classmate from measles. Artworks by <a href="https://lesleycoxart.com/earlier-works-3-polio-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Lesley Cox</a> also explore the impact of polio on families and communities. <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1676973595601-scaled.jpg" style="width:350px;height:650px;" alt="1676973595601-scaled.jpg" /><img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1676973595744-scaled.jpg" style="width:300px;height:650px;" alt="1676973595744-scaled.jpg" /> <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1676973595665-scaled.jpg" style="width:650px;height:350px;" alt="1676973595665-scaled.jpg" /> <img src="https://lesleycoxart.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/image29.jpg" style="width:350px;height:650px;" alt="image29.jpg" />(©Lesley Cox) Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource James Furey Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Cork Folklore Project Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Cork Folklore Project Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Audio Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource .wav Files Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Evelyn Wainwright Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview James Furey Location The location of the interview Togher, Cork Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 83m 08s Time Summary A summary of an interview given for different time stamps throughout the interview <table> <tbody> <tr> <td> 0.00.00 - 0.05.55 </td> <td> Introduction and background Born on Douglas St/Nicolas Hill. One brother 11 months older, Mother from Roches Buildings Richmond hill and father from Douglas St. Contracted Polio while in Youghal on a trip at 3 years of age. First brought to fever hospital Cork, then 2 years in Cappagh hospital Baldoyle. Evelyn has no memory pf contacting the disease or her time in the hospital Evelyn very attached to her mother, thinks maybe to do with being away for so long. Father not on the scene after her birth, only met him twice in her life. He worked in Ford in Dagenham. Sent wire/money every 2 weeks to his mother. Evelyn’s mother reared them hand to mouth. Had cleaning jobs, referred to as “Hurely”. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.05.55- 0.10.51 </td> <td> First memory of Polio St Finbarr’s hospital, Surgeon O’Connell said couldn’t operate till her bones had grown. Waited 5 years for first operation, was operated on during 1956 polio epidemic. Hated going to the Orthopaedic hospital. Describes the wards. Death not on her mind at that stage. No real memory of the 1956 epidemic. Her mother said that is it didn’t happen then the Orthopaedic would not have been used for polio suffers and Evelyn would have had to go to Dublin for operations. Mother didn’t like St Finbarr’s “Had a name” although they did have to visit every 6 months. 2 callipers from when she was 5. Couldn’t walk without them. Wasn’t treated differently at home, had chores etc </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.10.51- 0.14:15 </td> <td> School Christ the King Turners Cross No wheelchairs, went to school in a Go-kart, wheels often fell off. Local girl volunteered to assist Evelyn going to school, still great friends. Felt very isolated due to not being allowed to play in yard, attend concerts in school or do cooking. Couldn’t read till after she left school. Head nun very good to Evelyn (Mother Rose) </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.14:15 - 0.17.32 </td> <td> Lourdes Applied in newspaper draw to go to Lourdes in 1958. Early pick up from North Cathedral, Aeroplane. Mixed well with stranger. They weren’t allowed to mix with other only those they travelled with. Doesn’t know why [Paused recording 16m 25s] Not allowed go to torchlight procession. Felt excluded. Mother had thought her not to get bogged down by exclusion of jeering </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.22.35 - 0.27.25 </td> <td> Employment No secondary school. Was meant to go to school in cork polio new school in Montenotte but it never materialised in time. But was given tutoring by a nun in Maria Assumpta in Ballyphehane At 14 went to Mel industries. South terrace made gloves. Some days she couldn’t get to work with broken callipers, they would give her work from home. Worked there for 2 years then moved to the Sunbeam. Was in the invisible mending department. Got the 3 buses from Ballyphehane to Blackpool than had to walk all the way to the other side of the sunbeam campus. Good money, good condition, well treated. Good comradery. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.27.25 - 0.32.31 </td> <td> Her neighbourhood and her brother Barry Neighbours would all help out. If mother was working, they would bread butter and sugar. Mother even delivered a baby. Mother was called upon for lots of things. Brother would go on the lang (skipped school). Was given option to get job or go to the one-day-a-week. Got a job in bakery on Blarney st. Mother worked in Thompson’s of Thompson’s bakery house; Sam Thompson even made Evelyn’s wedding cake. Brother went into mechanical work. O’Shea’s builders on South Mall. Tells story of him putting greasy clothes on chair and madness ensued. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.32.31- 0.33.05 </td> <td> Employment Cont. Sunbeam for 4 years. 5 uncles worked there too but they would never meet there. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.33.05- 0.36.03 </td> <td> Evelyn’s Aunt with polio Tells of an Aunt Maureen (fathers sister) who contracted polio as a teenager and moved to England shortly afterwards. Never had an operation had a raised shoe about 15 inches different. Marries with 3 children. Evelyn’s Mother Evelyn’s paternal grandmother and Evelyn’s mothers’ relationship Single mother in the late 1940s/1950s. Not looked down upon or treated different </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.36.03- 0.38.25 </td> <td> Specialist shoes etc Used to buy special shoes in Saxone, not made to order. But had to be altered to fit calliper. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.38.25 - 0.40.33 </td> <td> Friends Positive relationship. There was name calling especially on crutches, didn’t affect her. Catherine always by her side. Stayed in classroom with Evelyn. Mary from her estate would also helped out. volunteered </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.40.33 - 0.48.17 </td> <td> Marriage Married at 21. Tells story of meeting husband on a social gathering. How getting connected with the Legion of Mary expanded her social group and led to more excursions. Gougane Barra trip with this group led to her meeting husband Terry through a friend who had bumped into him in Tralee. Terry returned to Liverpool, they kept up correspondence for months. Terry visits for Christmas, Evelyn visits for Easter, Married in the August in Ballyphehane. Moved to Liverpool that day. Too soon. Evelyn’s mother visited in October and stayed for 7 months until they all moved back to Ireland. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.48.17 - 0.53.05 </td> <td> Husband Terry and her Children Worked in scrap, then John A. Wood, then a bin collector. Worked 3 jobs at one stage. Shared paper sales job with Evelyn’s mother. Terry was great father. He would prepare all nappies and bottles before he went to work. First child Michelle born in 1968 England. Apartment not suitable for Evelyn to rear child. Michelle never left her side. Another child “wild” No mishaps or falls when children were young. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.53.05 - 0.55.23 </td> <td> Operations and mobility Evelyn explains her mobility after her operations. Tells story of difficulty manoeuvring hill. 4 operations in the orthopaedic first at 9 last at 16 Difficulty visiting grandparents </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.55.23- 0.58.19 </td> <td> Maternal Grandparents Lived on Richmond hill, Grandfathers job was to lift the Brian Boru bridge. Strict man, no fun when he was home. Lovely man and supportive. Boiled mutton dinner every Sunday. Evelyn was in her teens when they died, 8 years apart. Grandmother bought her Bush radio. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.58.19- 1.07.34 </td> <td> Evelyn’s Health. 21 years after last operation was next time she went to a doctor. Gynaecological issue. Contracted Pneumonia the next week, very bad, cardiac arrest, 10 days in hospital. Second daughter sick as a child. Years of uncertainty. Evelyn worked out it was a sugar allergy. She is over 6ft tall and no longer allergic to sugar. Her experience with polio was not as bad as others. No polio syndrome. Evelyn tells on incident where she broke her femur in Galway 1999. Doctor who operated did not know reason for her legs being different lengths and corrected them. This led to Evelyn having serious issues later. Evelyn explains that she has to use 2 walking stick, that she has driven a car since the 1970s, and is only using a motorised wheelchair for 2 years and only on doors. Had 2 more falls in the last 8 years. Broken ankles and kneecap. Now terrified of falling. So got the wheelchair, not HSE supported. Takes the strain of the everyday. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 1.07.34 – 1.15.21 </td> <td> Disability Services etc. Cork Polio general aftercare, Disabled Drivers Ireland. Evelyn tells of getting one driving lesson and being on her own after that. Has driven since the early 1970s. then was driving instructor for disabled drivers Ireland, was given a vehicle to teach other how to drive. Through AGM with disabled driver’s, she heard of new group for polio survivors, attended first meeting later became a director of the group for 10 years. Still very involved in organising event. Evelyn teel of using Vienna Woods hotel for monthly meetings but they had to stop using the hotel due to a new entrance that was built with steps and no disabled access. “Now we are barred form there”. Evelyn expresses her anger at such a backward step. Evelyn describes how many strides have been taken to help give access to those with disability. But is angered at the change to disabled parking in Cork city which effectively means that she can no longer visit there. Describes how difficult it is. Has to always check ahead if a restaurant or hotel is accessible. Long drives also a problem due to lack of facilities. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 1.15.22 – 1.16.35 </td> <td> Other Polio cases in Ballyphehane Mention Marie O’Mahoney form Pearse Road, Met a couple of times in hospital. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 1.16.35 – 1.17.35 </td> <td> Faith Major part of her life. Rosery most nights as a child, Starts her day with mass. Hasn’t passed it on to her children. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 1.17.35 – 1.20.20 </td> <td> Relationship with Aunts. Not much pf relationship with her Aunt Maureen who had polio, met her when she visited. More of a relationship with her aunt Rita, Rita was more like a sister only 7 years apart. Very close all their lives, Rita only died a few years ago. Still close to Rita’s family. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 1.20.20 – 1.23.08 </td> <td> Final Thoughts Doesn’t like the condescending element people can give off. Literal patting on the head etc. Doesn’t let the negative bother her. Some disabled people demand not ask which leads to bitterness. Her mother raised her better [Interview Ends] </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Evelyn Wainwright Description An account of the resource Evelyn was born in the 1940s. Her parents were living in England prior to her birth. Father worked for Ford in Dagenham. Evelyn only met her father a handful of times. After her parent’s relationship ended Evelyn’s mother and her older brother Barry moved to the corporation estate of O’Growney Crescent in Ballyphehane. At the age of 3 Evelyn contracted polio. Two years were spent in Cappagh Hospital in Finglas Co. Dublin. Evelyn brings us through her live, from schooling Turners Cross which she made lifelong friendships but also had her first instance of isolation. Not following on to secondary education Evelyn got a job in the Textile industry, first at Mel Industries then in the Sunbeam. Evelyn talks about her life getting married and having a family in her early 20s, the realities of living with polio and raising children. She talks about her involvement in groups such as Disabled Driver Ireland and Polio Survivors Ireland. Evelyn also describes her mother character in a time when single mother s might have been looked down upon. She mentions an aunt the also had polio. Evelyn also touches on how disability access while it has improved from the days of her youth has not really been thought through with any real concern for those with disabilities. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 29 June 2022 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CFP_SR00800_Wainwright_2022 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Cork Folklore Project Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Cork Folklore Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Cork Folklore Project Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Cork Folklore Project Language A language of the resource English Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource .wav Subject The topic of the resource Polio Ballyphehane Callipers Cappagh Hospital Cork city Disabled Drivers Association of Ireland Motherhood Polio Polio Survivors Ireland School Sunbeam https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/5b265a69d84c3c846140cb91b9fcf975.mp3 6469a965adc645a495ea7c485472979a Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Kathleen O’ Driscoll Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Madeline O’ Higgins Location The location of the interview the Glen Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound Sample Transcript: M.H : Now I’m just asking you a few basic questions , how far back can you remember the old Coal Quay ? KOD : Well I go back 30 years ago because it could be even more but as far as could remember when my Father and Mother would come in a pony and car, tie there long side Mrs Twomey’s shop at the corner now where the old paint is. But all that Coal Quay is changed complety right there use to be Wagons belong to the traveling people there and the shawls and the old baskets and if I had clothes I sell them in the Coal Quay my mother would. We’d sell and we go away begging all day and we sell the clothes to the old women in the Coal Quay they make their few bob of them. You know like times that time now it different to all together now M.H : Would you prefer it years ago ? KOD : Well to tell you the truth if I had my way I love to go back to them days again because they were happy days they where plasent days they where poorer days we had to look for what we wanted and we aprecaite it M.H : Em could you remember you mother and all of them wearing the shawls ? KOD : I do of course I even have her shawl M.H : Have you ? KOD : I have her wrap M.H : O lovely, lovely KOD : I have yeah M.H : Em What else use they sell down there ? KOD : My mother use to come up there for her we use to call it stock and she use to have a basket and she use to sell soaps glasses niddles pins and em any thing at all to make a few bob , we use to buy them in punches , Mrs Punch M.H : Where about’s is she ? KOD : She be up about way you know where their is a painting shop there O you know it now up there you know there is a lane it would take you out and em the side of em you know where the Bodega now there is a lane at the side of that Mrs Punch had a shop there and my mother use to come up for the status there and em buy them and go to the country and sell them we come back then for maybe a farpence worth maybe that time now it be as goo what I’m not a scholar in that line we say it would be as good as thirty or forthy pound now it would yeah with all black shawls and then they use to have the rugs most of the time but the Coal Quay is complety changed Mrs Dennehy’s bar and all is different altogether now Mrs Towmey is still there all the time you know her don’t yeah ? Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Kathleen O’ Driscoll Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CFP_SR00242_odriscoll_1998 Description An account of the resource Born in the 1920s Kathleen (Kitty) O’Driscoll recalls memories of the Coal Quay and its vicinity. She remembers shops including Mrs Twomeys and Mrs Punch’s. Speaks of the shawls worn by the women there. She also mentions Andy Gaw a well-known Cork “character”. Mentions Dennehy’s Pub and Cathy/ Kitty/ Kathy Barry who ran a shebeen/ síbín nearby. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 5-11-98 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Cork Folklore Project Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Cork Folklore Project Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Cork Folklore Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Cork Folklore Project Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Cork Folklore Project Language A language of the resource English Andy Gaw begging blackberries children's games Clothes Coal Quay Cork Crubeens Dennhy’s pub Food Gurranbraher Horses Kinsale Kitty Barry Macroom Mrs Punch Mrs Twomey Rosary Shawls Shops https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/775e37276dd84401fa3c08b29276308b.jpg 2c0cab7f061923cca009df8adc177d9c https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/2d2c6f3191f08ce1f4c837499cf38761.mp3 1ea7b4d5bb8188fcb9649e30834029d7 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Catching Stories (of Infectious Disease In Ireland) <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Catching-Stories-w-logos-3.png" style="width:350px;height:100px;" alt="Catching-Stories-w-logos-3.png" /> Subject The topic of the resource Life History; Ireland; Health; Communicable diseases; Epidemics; Poliomyelitis; Polio; Postpoliomyelitis syndrome; Tuberculosis; TB; Measles; Diphtheria; COVID-19; Vaccines; Description An account of the resource Catching Stories is a folklore-STEM collaboration project funded through the <a style="color:#4a6ee0;background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" target="_blank" href="https://www.sfi.ie/" class="editor-rtfLink" rel="noreferrer noopener">Science Foundation Ireland</a> (SFI) Discover Programme. The project was concerned with those who had first had experiences of being stricken with the disease, their family members and the public health practitioners who served on the frontline of past epidemics. The diseases the project focused on were: polio, tuberculosis, diphtheria and measles, Spanish flu and COVID-19. The project grew from seed funding through the Irish Research Council and University College Cork's(UCC) College of Arts, Celtic Studies & Social Sciences. This funding enabled the team to collate material in the Cork Folklore Project's archive and create a pilot online resource. In 2022 the project was awarded an SFI Discover grant that allowed the team to undertake new bespoke interviews and grow the online dissemination platform. To date (February 2023), Catching Stories consists of XX interviews. 'Catching Stories' has also been drawn from the Cork Folklore Project Sound Archive for other related material. The project's main output is an online resource (<a style="color:#4a6ee0;background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" target="_blank" href="http://www.catchingstories.org" class="editor-rtfLink" rel="noreferrer noopener">www.catchingstories.org</a>). This website places personal oral testimonies adjacent to scientific information about the diseases. There was also a series of talks and presentations for <a style="color:#4a6ee0;background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" target="_blank" href="https://catchingstories.org/events/" class="editor-rtfLink" rel="noreferrer noopener">Heritage Week 2022, Culture Night 2022 and Science Week 2022</a>. With support from <a style="color:#4a6ee0;background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" target="_blank" href="https://www.ucc.ie/en/apc/" class="editor-rtfLink" rel="noreferrer noopener">APC Microbiome</a>, SFI and UCC's <a style="color:#4a6ee0;background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" target="_blank" href="https://libguides.ucc.ie/library" class="editor-rtfLink" rel="noreferrer noopener">Boole Library,</a> the Catching Stories team curated the interactive multimedia exhibition, Catching Stories of Infectious Disease in Ireland (16 February - 25 June 2023), in UCC's Boole Library. The Exhibition was subsequently taken by the Heatlh Service Executive and displayed in their campuses and buildings throughout Cork and Kerry. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2019-2023 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Interviewees: Lesley Cox; Evelyn Wainwright; Emma Conway Clarke; Michael Hussey; Paul O'Brien, James Hoare Nagle; Edward Tanner; Michael and Theresa O'Sullivan, Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Ireland; 1920s-2020s Relation A related resource Website <a href="https://catchingstories.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">www.catchingstories.org</a> <img src="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/e9fc50934d016888e8a29de8e14d25d4.JPG" style="width:500px;height:250px;" alt="e9fc50934d016888e8a29de8e14d25d4.JPG" /> Here you can engage with the collected material side by side with biomedical commentary from immunologist Dr Elizebeth Brint. Presentation and Listening Events Heritage Week 2022 <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Heritage-Week-2022-Library-talk-300x169.jpg" alt="Heritage-Week-2022-Library-talk-300x169.jpg" /> For Heritage Week project coordinator James Furey gave a presentation of the project at Cork City Library Grand Parade. Culture Night 2022 <img class="size-medium wp-image-407 alignnone" src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Culture-Night-2020-30-300x224.jpg" alt="Culture-Night-2020-30-300x224.jpg" /><img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Culture-Night-2020-6-300x224.jpg" alt="Culture-Night-2020-6-300x224.jpg" /> For Culture night the team went to the streets to set up a ‘time travelling’ vaccination clinic outside the old medical centre on Grattan St Cork City. Willing participants sat on a bench and heard Joe Scanlon’s story of receiving the ‘Branding Iron’, Joe’s term for the vaccine apparatus used in the 1950s. Joe’s story and the event elicited a great response from those who took part. Science Week 2022 <img src="https://corkfolklore.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Science-Week-2022-2-724x1024.png" style="width:200px;height:300px;" alt="Science-Week-2022-2-724x1024.png" /> Celebrate Science Family Day on 13th November 2022 <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/IMG_5840-300x200.jpg" alt="IMG_5840-300x200.jpg" /> Our first outing for Cork Science Festival was at the ‘Celebrate Science’ Family Day at University College Cork’s Western Gateway Building. For this event, we fired up the ‘Time-machine’ to bring participants on a trip to 1958, the day Joe Scanlon received a vaccine, or as Joe calls it, <a href="https://catchingstories.org/getting-the-vaccine/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">‘The Branding Iron’</a>. <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/IMG_5844-300x200.jpg" alt="IMG_5844-300x200.jpg" /> The Catching Stories team held four sessions. We played Joe’s story and quizzed our audience on their knowledge of infectious diseases and their memory of receiving vaccines. There was excellent engagement with both young and old. The younger participants left with a greater understanding of diseases like polio and tuberculosis. And the older members relayed their stories of getting vaccinated and how infectious diseases had encroached on their lives. Science Week Talk UCC Student Hub Those who braved the horrendous rain on November 15th were delighted to shelter in The Shtepps to hear the presentation from James Furey and Beth Brint on how folklore and STEM can work together to bring new perspectives on health education and understanding. Exhibition <img src="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/d3170f22a998193439e53217786f14ea.jpg" style="width:200px;height:300px;" alt="d3170f22a998193439e53217786f14ea.jpg" /> The exhibition in UCC's Boole Library (16 February - 25 June 2023), was an innovative exploration of how to engage people with a topic that does not lend itself too easily to public dissemination. The exhibition foregrounded the human voice through audio installations (Made by Dr Jeffery Weeter), links to interviews, and interaction with physical objects. It invited visitors to join interviewees in the experience of manually ventilating a child with polio throughout the night in 1956 and to move along a waiting-room bench when facing vaccination by the dreaded ‘Branding Iron’ or to imagine the loss of a childhood classmate from measles. Artworks by <a href="https://lesleycoxart.com/earlier-works-3-polio-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Lesley Cox</a> also explore the impact of polio on families and communities. <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1676973595601-scaled.jpg" style="width:350px;height:650px;" alt="1676973595601-scaled.jpg" /><img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1676973595744-scaled.jpg" style="width:300px;height:650px;" alt="1676973595744-scaled.jpg" /> <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1676973595665-scaled.jpg" style="width:650px;height:350px;" alt="1676973595665-scaled.jpg" /> <img src="https://lesleycoxart.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/image29.jpg" style="width:350px;height:650px;" alt="image29.jpg" />(©Lesley Cox) Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource James Furey Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Cork Folklore Project Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Cork Folklore Project Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Audio Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource .wav Files Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Lesley Cox Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview James Furey Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 35m 24s Location The location of the interview 5 Elderwood, College Road, Cork City Time Summary A summary of an interview given for different time stamps throughout the interview <table> <tbody> <tr> <td> 0.00.50 - 0.02.49 </td> <td> Fathers Background. Patrick Massey. Contracted Polio around 10 years of age. He was a French polisher. Walked with a limp. Spent 4 years in Cappagh hospital. Born in Clonbrassil Street, father a driver for Massey brother’s funeral home. Moved to Dun Laoghaire. Sickly child, mother doted on him. Youngest of 14 children of which 11 survived. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.02.49 - 0.04.37 </td> <td> Contracting Polio. Lesley thinks it was 1939. Didn’t talk about time in hospital at all. Did mention his doctor was called to the War. Patrick had 6 operations none of which worked to any great measure. He was left with bad limp, no heel, leg half the width of his other leg, completely distorted, walked on his toes underneath his foot. Big scar on shin. Callipers after hospital. Children jeered him for having limp. Awful stigma. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.04.38 - 0.08.35 </td> <td> Learning to walk again Ashamed of Calliper so locked himself in room to teach himself to walk unaided. Used to wrap his foot in “wadding”. Lesley describes the process. Describes how he walked and how painful it was and how he adapted. Used razor blades to manicure his feet. Did not admit he needed help. Very proud and did not describe himself as disabled. Did not take wheelchair till 73 years old. Died at 76. Lesley describes how he stood with his leg pointing out, Lesley says that she too walks like him. Nobody knew he had Polio, everyone thought he had “a bad leg” Had 6 gins to help him walk Lesley down the aisle on her wedding day. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.08.35 - 0.10.19 </td> <td> Lesley discovers her father had polio when she was in her 20s. Always understood him to just have a bad leg. Did not find out till she was in hospital with him when he had pneumonia. Doctor asked what was wrong with leg, Patrick said he had had infantile paralysis. Lesley did not know what that was. Wasn’t even that familiar with polio. Didn’t talk about it even talk about after that. Her mother did talk about it a little bit. Lesley goes on to mention that her father hated nurses, doctors, and the clergy. Never relied on the medical profession, refused ambulance when he had a heart attack. Had lung cancer, signed himself of hospital 2 days after getting lung removed. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.10.19- 0.11.20 </td> <td> Cappagh Hospital Finglas. Patrick did not speak to often about his experience in Cappagh. He did mention the exercises that he had to do like pulling himself with a rope, Physio every day. Didn’t talk of other patients. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.11.20 - 0.12.34 </td> <td> Stigma and Coping Lesley mentions that Patrick’s friend La-la (Lawrence) told her after Patrick’s death that Patrick had asked La-la not to tell anyone that why he was in hospital. Gave no explanation as to why he was away. Developed bad coping mechanism. Would get physically violent with people that abused or jeered him. Lesley tells of occasion where La-la held a boy and Patrick broke the boy’s hand for calling him “hop a long”. Very strong upper body strength </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.12.34- 0.15.30 </td> <td> Lesley’s understanding of polio. Lesley had no understanding of Polio until after finding out about her father having it. In her 20s (1990s). But wasn’t until after her father died that she learned more on the subject. Met with other polio survivors. Then realised how hard it was for him. Patrick didn’t complain about it till later in life. Didn’t wear orthopaedic shoes etc Describes her fathers hip problems and pain. How it was evident that he was in pain. Would pull his toenails out with razor blades. Didn’t even complain when he had lung cancer. Lesley’s mother knew everything but also didn’t talk about it. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.15.30 - 0.17.20 </td> <td> Lesley’s mother Lesley’s mother knew everything but also didn’t talk about it. Her family were not too happy with her marrying Patrick because of the limp. They did not know it was polio. Describes how Patrick had trouble getting jobs, He was a French polisher, moved to England in the late 1960s but didn’t stay long, unable to find job. Eventually got job in the Shelbourne Hotel as in-house polisher, had apprentices etc. Patrick’s wife was also a French polisher, they met at PYE radio. He had worked for Massey’s making and polishing coffins but after the “big snow” in Dublin in the late 1940s (1947?) where a lot of children from the tenements died Patrick left the job, couldn’t bear to “coffin” the children so left Massey’s after that. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.17.20- 0.18.29 </td> <td> Stigma and Abuse as an adult People would make comments “what’s wrong with your leg?”. Wouldn’t respond to adults but would sit with a child if they asked him and explain that he “hurt it as a baby”. Might get angry with adults. Patrick drank a lot so would get into scraps. He was very strong in his upper body. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.18.29 - 0.19.34 </td> <td> Learning to walk again Lesley describes how her uncle Frank told her how her father learned how to walk again. Threw callipers out the window, lined chairs up in the room and thought himself how to walk over a 2-week period. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.19.35- 0.20.32 </td> <td> Patricks Family relationships His mother and siblings very caring to wards him. Father supported doctors wishes to amputate leg. Mother said no. Father dismissed him due to the limp, that there was something wrong with Patrick </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.20.33 - 0.24.38 </td> <td> Distrust of medical profession and Clergy Had a lot of dealings with medical profession, Pleurisy, cancer etc. Doctors pleaded with him to get physio and help, he refused, didn’t think he could transition to new way of care. Lesley remembers time when lay Chaplin came to him in hospital and asked if they were “a sky pilot” and told them to go away. Lesley’s family used to look after her cousin who had heart problems and cleft pallet. Patrick took a shine to him and when he died on the operating table Patrick never went to church again or had any religious inclination. “no God”. Lesley’s mother very religious. Lesley mentions that Patrick was overprotective of her and her sister. She suspects some form of abuse happened in Cappagh hospital when he was there. No babysitters etc, very suspicious people. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.24.39- 0.31.37 </td> <td> Lesley’s Artwork relating to Polio “” The march of the shillings” Lesley describes her polio focused art. massive research. Talked to Polio Survivors Ireland. Philip Boxberger and Jenny Richardson form West Cork. Told Lesley of the horrible experiences. Both were sent to posh hospitals in Scotland. Talks about her research and the art that came from that. The numbers in the newspaper the only way to find out what condition child was in. Lesley becomes slightly emotional when she spoke of her work. How it helped her deal with grief of her father’s passing and helped her understand fathers’ life. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.31.38 - 0.32.41 </td> <td> Lesley’s Abiding memory of her father Him standing at the door, arm against door frame holding court, half in kitchen half in the Livingroom. Comfortable to be in his normal position. Very funny </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.32.42 - 0.35.24 </td> <td> Patrick’s brother breaks in to Cappagh Hospital Patrick’s brother Brian was leaving to join British navy when he was 17. Patrick did not recognise him. Patrick very grateful that he did so. Brian a bit of a rebel. Later in life Brian lived with Lesley’s family [Interview Ends] </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Lesley Cox Description An account of the resource Lesley Spoke about her father’s life as a polio survivor. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 27 June 2022 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Cork Folklore Project Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CFP_SR00799_Cox_2022 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Cork Folklore Project Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Cork Folklore Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Cork Folklore Project Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Cork Folklore Project Language A language of the resource English Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource .wav file Art Bullying Callipers Cappagh Hospital Dun Laoghaire Infantile Paralysis Massey Brothers Funeral Directors Polio stigma Trauma https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/7fcbb6860a6648889321cdd54c33289a.jpg cbbf5bcac2c033b72d3e5763d11f9dea https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/a61e929548cd974a079a415948fe9022.jpg ff6824fa6ae31302ed9b5333404a60cd https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/0600641182e88003113c06439134164a.mp3 57bd5ad46b6c654c1c2f1f741e55d761 Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Frank Steele and John Steele Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Margaret Steele, Robert Galligan Long Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 95m04s Location The location of the interview Dublin Hill, Cork Transcription Any written text transcribed from a sound Sample: F S And it’s not just us, you know. Em i-i-it was the way we went about things. I, I mentioned earlier about the big railway bridge. That was a huge dividing line on the Lower Road. J S Above The Bridge and Below The Bridge. F S Yeah -- you were either Above The Bridge or Below The Bridge. You were born into one tribe or the other, and there was nothing you could do about it. M S [laughs] J S And you couldn’t mix. F S You couldn’t, no, no, no. We went to school together, we did -- we were in the Scouts together, but basically you were either Above The Bridge or Below The Bridge, and we went to war with each other, we played games against each other -- J S Matches. F S -- we had stone battering [laughs] against each other. J S Yeah. F S Em I, I remember one time -- and I suppose this now might shock people today, but I remember that there was a very intense Above The Bridge-Below The Bridge war in em -- I forget what summer it was. And I remember we, we captured Gully. J S Oh Gully. [laughs] F S We captured Gully and we tried him. He was from Below The Bridge, and we tried him and naturally we found him guilty and then we decided we’d have to execute him, so we tied him to a pole and we shot him with skeories. J S Yeah. F S Yeah, do you know the red, the -- what are they, what’s their proper name? J S Eh -- F S The red -- J S Hawthorn. F S Hawthorn, red hawthorn berries. You know? M S How did ye shoot him? J S Catapults. F S With a little catapult. M S And would ye have made the catapults yerselves? F S Oh absolutely. Absolutely. J S Ah of course. Yeah. Jeepers. M S How would ye make the catapults? J S You just get a bit of stick -- F S A fork of stick. [laughing] J S A fork of stick and a -- put the, the elastic between it and that was it. F S Yeah. M S Would -- J S We bought nothing because there was nothing there for us to buy. F S Yeah. And there was no money to buy it either. J S Everything we made -- No, everything we played with, we made. F S Mm. J S Like a great place I can remember down was Dwyers. F S Yeah, oh that was unbelievable. J S Was it Woodhill or something? I, I -- F S It was one of the old merchant houses of Cork, Woodhill Villas. J S Yeah, that’s right. But down below it was just a haven for kids. F S Yeah. J S There was a football pitch belong to Saint Patricks who we were all involved with. F S Yeah. J S Then there was a wood, I suppose, well to us twas a wood anyway, probably only a [scart? 15:40] really. F S Well I suppose -- originally, I would say it was actually a landscaped garden because -- Remember the place we used call the Fort? The round -- that actually was a lake, a little artificial -- J S That thing -- the roundy -- Yeah. I often wondered what that was. F S -- pond, you know? And I don’t know if you remember but there were a lot of unusual trees. J S There was, yeah, yeah. F S And I, I’d say they were deliberately planted because I forget which of the families lived in the actual big house -- and it was a big house -- J S Colossal. F S In our time ‘twas done in flats so to speak, you know? But it was one of the great big houses of Cork that are all down that side of Montenotte on down into em Little Island, on that side of the road, you have one big house after another, you know. So that, that was those grounds. But they, they were absolute heaven. J S Yeah. F S We would head off about ten in the morning -- J S We were always cowboys and Indians. F S Yeah, cowboys and Indians. [hiccup] J S I can remember actually, one thing sticks out in my mind. I was on the opposite one to you, of course. F S Yeah. J S And whatever anyway, you threw your spear and the spear just went ‘Boom’ [mimes spear hitting him] and I just went -- ‘boom’ -- F S [laughs] J S But like -- didn’t know about the -- didn’t even think about the thing coming up [gestures to indicate a swelling coming up on his forehead], got up, wanted to kill him straight away. F S [laughs] J S Had to get out me bow and arrow and let him have it. [laughs] M S How come ye’d end up on opposite sides in games? Just randomly like? F S That’s just the way it was. J S Yeah, well -- Yeah, and -- F S Brothers usually separated. J S In things like that, yeah. F S Because like we didn’t think it through but like if we didn’t separate then it could become something else. J S Yeah. F S It could be family A against family B. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Frank Steele and John Steele Description An account of the resource This interview, with two brothers, spans from 1943 to the present. They describe their idyllic childhood on Lower Road in Cork during the ‘50s and ‘60s, local people and community mores, swimming in the river, taking the train to Youghal (Sea Breeze Express) and childhood games and pranks such as Runaway Knock and Thunder up the Alley. They discuss the role of the railway line on the local community, community rivalries and seeing the showbands at the Arcadia. They describe waiting for the animals to arrive when Chipperfields circus came to Cork. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 04.09.2014 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource cork folklore project Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CFP_SR00524_steele_2014 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource cork folklore project Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived cork folklore project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available cork folklore project Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource cork folklore project Language A language of the resource English Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Audio/Wav Above the Bride/Below the Bridge Arcadia Ballroom Arcadia bouncer Back Line Baldy Green Black-eye Dean Sexton’s Boxing Club Frank Steele Garda Gardai Glasheeen Hoops John Steele Lower Road Runaway Knock St Patrick’s School the Coliseum the Fisheries Thunder up the alley Tivoli Tivoli Regatta https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/7904388105684297d317579b754f3afa.mp3 32a7335d2ff57b1659453a3455391fc6 Event A non-persistent, time-based occurrence. Metadata for an event provides descriptive information that is the basis for discovery of the purpose, location, duration, and responsible agents associated with an event. Examples include an exhibition, webcast, conference, workshop, open day, performance, battle, trial, wedding, tea party, conflagration. Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 7 min 6 sec Event Type The Rory Gallagher Memorial in Murphy’s Brewery, Ladyswell, Cork. 2 Short spee.ches Participants Names of individuals or groups participating in the event Marcus Connaughton & Scott Duncan Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource The Rory Gallagher Memorial Description An account of the resource This recording consists of an introductory remarks and a brief speech on the occasion of the presentation of a posthumous award to Rory Gallagher from UK-based Blue Print magazine. The event took place in Murphy’s Brewery, Ladyswell, Cork. The speakers are Marcus Connaughton & Scott Duncan. It was recorded by Conor Kennelly. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 21st November 1996 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CFP_SR00014_RoryGallagherMemorial_1996 Relation A related resource CFP_SR00013_Gillan_1996 CFP_SR00015_Cronin_1996 CFP_SR00016_Dineen_1996 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Cork Folklore Project Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Cork Folklore Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Cork Folklore Project Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Cork Folklore Project Language A language of the resource English blueprint magazine blues Monica Gallagher Music Rory Gallagher Ross Daly RTC/CIT/MTU Scott Duncan Stories Sue Duncan https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/cf155f1117d108de1420e76d6313264c.mp3 bda2cac14952c68ba8b65eedc05a966a Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Donal Ring Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Tim McCarthy Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 109m05s Location The location of the interview City Lights Killeens, Commons Road, Cork Time Summary A summary of an interview given for different time stamps throughout the interview <table> <tbody> <tr> <td> 0.00.03 - 0.07.53 </td> <td> Interviewer Tim McCarthy begins by giving a brief biographical rundown of Donal Rings career saying that Donal started playing the accordion at the age of thirteen and he was influenced by his father who was a melodeon player and he was playing professionally from the age of fifteen thus winning the acclaim of his peers. He speaks of how Donal garnered a large fanbase locally and internationally. Tim states that much of Donals story has been documented by local media and he states that Brian Lawlor of the Irish Traditional Music Archive, which is housed in Merrion Square Dublin, did two extensive interviews with Donal in 2009 so he states that today they will seek to focus on more local topics and general topics that Brian and other interviewees may not have covered. Tim makes a statement to the effect that Brian’s interviews are available online and the Cork Folklore Project will request his permission to refer to them in relation to whatever they discuss today so it will all be unified. Donal says his musical influence started with his father who he says would play morning noon and night and liked playing. That was for the first couple of years and then Donal became friendly with the late Donal Coleman and they got together playing. Donal Coleman was from Grenagh Parish and they joined a little band in Mallow called the Celtic Ceili Band and they were there for two years with a man called Joe Boyle who was from Clonmel Co Tipperary and married in Mallow. After two years they (the two Donals) left and formed the Blarney Ceili Band and joined up with the Murphy’s of Blackstone Bridge who Donal says were very good fiddlers and bass players etc. Donal Ring was there for three years and then decided to go out on his own. He became friendly with a man called Noel Crowley from Dillon’s Cross in Cork City whom Donal says was a great accordion player and who has passed away in the last year. Himself and Donal started a band and the way it started was they tossed a penny, Donal says at the time he was saying the Rosary in Commons Road and each was saying to other to put their name on the band so in the end they tossed a penny and Donal’s name came up so that was how the band started (the Donal Ring Ceili Band). Noel was with him in the band for five or six years and then they organised a tour of London and Noel didn’t want to go as he didn’t like travelling. He says Frank Fitzpatrick went instead and Donal says they got on reasonably well adding you can’t expect miracles starting out. They went to London and had thirteen dates supposed to be booked and when they arrived it was seven. He says they were green and walked into it, he says you learn fast. They enjoyed it and it was a challenge he adds. He adds they went again the following year and it was a great success. It was a great tour he says. He says after this they were trying to get on television, (on RTE) There were two programmes called Beirt Eile and Club Céilí and they were writing in to RTE to get on the programmes and RTE got back to say they were on the casting file and they would get in contact when they (the band) were required. He says it went on like this and Donal says he was very friendly with Tony Hegarty who was managing the band at the time. Tony asked Donal if he knew Jack Lynch to which Donal said he did. Tony advised Donal to go to Jack Lynch’s office on the Grand Parade on a Saturday morning so Donal went down to him. When he called there Jack Lynch asked him if they had ever done broadcasting to which Donal said they had done live broadcasting from Union Quay for RTE. Donal showed Jack Lynch the letters he had got from RTE and Jack said to leave it with him and he would have a word with Mr McCourt (Note: Kevin McCourt, Director General of RTE from 1962 to 1968). Tim asks Donal if he was a judge in Midleton to which Donal says he doesn’t know but that he was the “bossman” in RTE. Three weeks later RTE got in touch to say they were on. He says that was a lucky break and it was thanks to RTE that they got it. From there on the whole thing blossomed he says. Donal adds that Jack Lynch was quite cautious too as he wanted to know whether they had done Live broadcasts and it was the makings of them and they got a lot of work off it. Tim asks Donal if Tony Hegarty is the well known Cork comedian. Donal says he was and he was a great friend. When Donal had no money Tony often gave him 50 pounds and Donal will never forget that. He says he was a great friend and a good manager but he pulled out because they got too busy and there was no need of a manager. He says it was not like today, today he says you have to ring somebody to look for work and he says back then it was the opposite. They (venues) would ring you and book dates with you and confirm them in writing. He says they did the rest themselves. He says Tony Hegarty was their only ever manager and after that he did it himself. He says there isin’t that much to it. He says doing it himself you get to know people better. He says sometimes you could go to a place and you could be told that you weren’t booked at all. He say it happened a few times, he says going back fifty seven years ago they went to Kiskeam (in North Cork) one night to be told they weren’t booked at all and Donal says they were. Another night one New Years Eve they drove up to Kildare as they were booked into a venue only to be told that there must be some mistake and he told them they had been there twelve months previously and the venue had rebooked them but they repeated that there was a mistake. He said all they could do was to get something to eat for the band and drive them home and he jokes, take some abuse because they haven’t some sort of contract with them. He says you wouldn’t get a lot of abuse. He says the contract wasn’t in writing but he would always honour it whether it was or not. He says at that time contracts were mostly in writing but it was starting to go out. He says regarding dances everything would be conformed about the dance only the fee. (Note: from 7.51 to 7.53 Donal says a saying which sounds like “there was no quarrel with the price you bring them” though it is not 100% clear on the recording) </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.07.59 - 0.11.13 </td> <td> Tim asks Donal if all of the band travelled together to which he says they did. He says they always had a Volkswagen minibus and he says he had eleven of them in total down the years all of which he wore out. He says the Volkswagen are a great machine. Donal then mentions the name of the local motor supplier of the time, (Note: at 8.20 Donal mentions the name of his local car supplier of the time who would supply him with the minibuses, it may be Thomas Transport but it is unclear on the recording). Donal says the manager of the motor supplier whom he would buy the minibuses from was Michael McCarthy who was always very good to him and whenever an exceptional Volkswagen came in Michael would have Donal in line for it. When asked how the band members spent the time in the van on the road he says they would play chess. Jer (or Jerry) Casey and Gary Cronin would be playing chess, Jer was a genius he says. Gary had a miniature board and he would be half an hour making a move Donal says. Jerry would be in the front beside Donal and he straight away make his move and then hand the board back over the seat to Gary who would then take another half an hour to make the next move. He says you would have arguments over very small things when people would get tired and cranky, he says they would tend to pick on the weak points to get the next fellow going. He says they were all great lads even though he had at least fifty band members travelling in the van down the years. Tim asks Donal if he has done a “family tree” meaning a history of the band members. Donal replies to say that his niece in San Francisco is doing a family history of the Ring family which he says is fairly big. Tim says he has seen a fair few bands do a history on their members showing who was connected with whom. Donal says their connection in that respect would be the McCarthy’s and starting with the Cork songwriter Jimmy McCarthy. Donal says he might not have his facts exactly right but he says his own grandmother was a McCarthy and he thinks she was a grandaunt of Jimmy McCarthy. He also mentions a Margaret McCarthy who plays the fiddle in blarney and she played for President Barack Obama in the White House on St Patricks Day. He says she played the fiddle and danced the hornpipe at the same time. He says she is fantastic. Donal says he saw his grandmother dancing the hornpipe and playing the melodeon so it is in the blood. He says the grandchildren from his fathers side the music came from. He says his mother’s side of the family isn’t musical at all. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.11.14 - 0.14.56 </td> <td> Tim asks Donal if they wore uniforms in the band to which he says they did. He says it was important to be dressed neatly. He says they got Irish plaid suits one time which were made by the late Tom Aherne who had a tailors shop on the North Main St in Cork. He says this was in the early 1960’s. He says they also had lovely coats from John Culhane (note: He probably means John Mannix of Mannix & Culhane on Washington St) and they got coats and jackets from a man called Nick Buttery. They had jackets of different colours. When asked did someone design them Donal says they were just made to measure and jokes that they weren’t that important. Donal says band members helped with the driving and loading of gear. He says when he started first he had two brothers in the band. Jerh Ring was the bass player, Donal says he was killed outside Blarney. He was a good driver he adds. Another brother Michael was also in the band but he didn’t drive. He had another man in the band the late Liam Kelleher who was a good driver. He says it is grand to sit in and not worry about the driver but there are many that you would worry about them driving and you’d get no peace that way. Donal says it was mostly himself driving and he says he started driving trucks which he says he drove for years. He says you’d have to be handy at it or you’d kill half of Cork. He talks for a bit about the truck driving and he says he was glad to get away from it. He says he finished up driving trucks for John O Hoolihan for whom he was driving multi wheeled Atkinson trucks which had no power steering and he would be hauling twenty five tons into Cork and he describes trying to take a turning by the Capitol Cinema on Washington St. He says it was tough work but he enjoyed it. Tim says he used to do this himself and asks what sites he was working from. Donal says the big job he was involved in was the building of the oil refinery in Whitegate. He was working for a firm called Ellis and was hauling material to the site in Whitegate and he was doing this for two years. After that he went to work on the building of Cork Airport for a couple of years. He says this was the biggest project of the time. He says he was hauling blocks for building sites. He worked for a man called Willy Desmond drawing sugar beet to Mallow and picking up the grain in the fields. He says there would be one man on the ground handing in a twenty stone bag. He jokes that you wouldn’t be breaking wind on Patrick St that night. Tim says there wouldn’t have been health and safety to which Donal agrees, he says that has gone too far these days and you’d see fellows working on the roads and there’d be cones on the road for half a mile and then nothing happening at the end. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.14.58 - 0.21.10 </td> <td> Tim asks if any of Donal’s band members achieved success in other areas. Donal says Ger Casey is a professor of archaeology in Dublin now and he was in Donal’s band for eleven years. The first ever violin player he had was Declan Townsend and he is a bachelor of music now. He says several great players never progressed to anything bigger like Tony O Sullivan and Frank Fitzpatrick who he says are still great players. He mentions his own brother Michael who became a panel beater, he says he plays accordion and he is still in the band. He left and he came back a few times he says. Tim asks how the set up of having two accordion players work. Donal says they spent years at it and when there are two playing they have to be bang on and they won’t get away with any discrepancies. They have to keep rehearsing and practising melodies and harmonies. He says when you are playing out in the country at ceilis you are playing jigs and reels and a second box is a great help. Things will go wrong one night and then other nights will go perfectly. Tim mentions that in the case of the Everly Brothers that it was said there was an affinity that produced a natural harmony and would Donal agree with that? Donal says there is no doubt about this. He adds that when Noel Crowley started out the band he was very meticulous as to getting the arrangements right, all the bass parts and piano parts had to be written out. That continued on with Gerry Casey who taught Donals daughter Mary and now she and Donal’s son write the arrangements for the band. Donal says they are not going to record anymore as the age of the cd is gone which he says is hard to believe. He says he has cds recorded and can’t sell them as everyone is downloading now from the internet. Tim asks Donal what he thinks of this, in reply he says his son was in Scotland this year and he played in a place called Dufftown. He was there playing on a Friday night and by example Donal says he was in Pa Johnsons pub on Devonshire St Cork on the following Monday night. He adds that there is an accordion night there on the last Wednesday of every month. On this occasion when Donal was there the proprietor Barry Johnson had the internet on (on a computer or device) and Donal says there was Donals son Donie and Terry McCarthy playing in Dufftown, he adds someone had uploaded two hours of it. Donal says you can’t sell cds under those circumstances. There follows a discussion with Tim and Donal as to whether this puts the focus back on live performances. Donal says that with live performances musicians have to be at the top of their game because anyone can film them with a mobile phone. Donal says that today the band consists of his brother Michael, Donal’s daughter Mary and he has a singer from Ballyroe called Con Hegarty and himself. He says they play in Blarney every Sunday night from 9 to 11. He says he himself will be 80 at the end of the week so playing two nights a week would be too much. He says his grandchildren are all playing, his grandson Aidan plays and another grandson Der plays with Robert Mizzell who is a big Country N Western act and plays the North a lot, Robert Mizzell is American he adds and his grandson is drumming with him. He compares musical ability to hurling and says it is in the blood. He says his grandchildren often play with him. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.21.12 - 0.25.36 </td> <td> Donal says the five row accordion is quite complex to play and he calls it ultimate accordion. He says he didn’t play it as it wasn’t there in his time. He was he was the “push and draw man” and he says he went as far as he could on that. He bought a Shand Morino accordion which is what Jimmy Shand, the famous Scottish accordionist played which is a very advanced push and pull keyboard. He adds that the five row is the most advanced and he says it is a superb keyboard. He says there is the two and three row which are push and pull. He goes on to speak more about the five row. He talks about the Shand Marino and talks about Jimmy Shand who he says was a marvellous man and the king in his book of playing terms. He says he was 100 years ahead of his time. He speaks about the Gallowglass Ceili Band and their influence. He says there were some great bands from up the country played the City Hall in Cork. He lists these acts such as Jackie Hearst from Newry, Sean Donoghue and his five sisters from Galway and Astor Row (?) from Donegal. He said they had some great nights there especially with Na Piarsaigh hurling club who he says held great Ceilis. He says Ceilis in the City would draw crowds of a couple of thousand. He says the golden era was from when Jimmy Shand came and as Donal says got the whole thing going. Donal thinks he came first to Cork around 1956 and came again in the early 60’s. Then the Gallowglass Ceili Band came and he says it took off. He says there was nearly thirty years where it was at its peak. He goes on to say that Tony Hegarty was running a ceili in the City Hall and Donal’s band were booked for it and also the Gallowglass were booked and also Jim Cameron from Scotland. Donal was up in the Hall with Tony on Saturday and Tony said he would have to have two thousand for the audience and it ended up having two and a half thousand. Donal recalls on the night that there was a queue on the footpath all the way up Angelsea Street and he adds there was no drink served, just a mineral bar. He says there was never a bar at the ceilis. He says in time the regular bars started building lounge extensions and running “bits of dances” then the normal dance halls, not all of them he adds, had to add a bar to compete. Donal adds any big dance they run now has a bar, they are doing one in Glenville on the week of the interview he says. He says those people drinking would just be having a couple of drinks and maybe a short. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.25.37 - 0.33.16 </td> <td> Tim asks Donal if there were two scenes going on then, the Showband scene in tandem with the music scene Donal was involved with. Donal says the Showband scene was very big. He mentions Brendan Bowyer. He speaks about the “wagons” the Showbands had, ie their tour buses. He says the wagons would be specially designed and very large. He goes on to say that nearly every parish ran a festival and Donal and the band would have one Irish night during the week. Donal and the band would get the date and they would be going non stop. The Irish night was always a great success because you would get an older crowd coming in for it. He says they often subsidised the Showbands with the crowd they would bring. He says they did the Rose Of Tralee for twenty one years, Upton Steam Rally for fourteen years, Cobh Festival for eighteen years and all these festivals would keep them busy. He says they had a slot on St Francis Hall as well for fourteen years every Tuesday night. Tim says he recalls St Francis Hall as being a popular spot and he asks what else went on there to which Donal says they used to have karate classes and card drives. He says it was owned by St Francis Church (on Liberty St, Cork). He says he thinks now it is a nightclub, they had some great nights there he adds. Tim asks Donal if they came across a lot of Cork Showbands and Donal mentions the Dixies. Tim asks about the connection between Donal’s band and the Dixies and Donal says the connection was with Terry McCarthy sings with Donals son Donie and they play a wide variety of material. (Note: Terry McCarthy has been part of the Dixies lineup). Donal says he knows Joe Mac of the Dixies well. He says they’re the same age. Donal says he never played with Joe Mac. He says Terry McCarthy played with Donal and his band in Scotland twice and he says his main ambition is to make the night a success. Tim asks about the Cork band the Arrivals and Donal says he knew them all, he mentions Declan Ryan. Donal says there were some bands in Cork from that time who didn’t receive due recognition, he says one was a group called the Modernaires who used to play in the Palm Court Ballroom on Oliver Plunkett St, he says it used to be the ESB office. Alderman John W Reidy bought it and converted it into the Palm Court Ballroom and it was a lovely place but it has since been sold and it is now known as the Oliver Plunkett. Tim mentions that it used to be the Black Bush and Scotts at various points. Donal goes on to mention the Regal from Bantry who he says were a great band. Tommy Power from Douglas also had a band. He also mentions Chris Mahon, he mentions them as being both passed away. He remembers when he was young seeing a band led by a man called Pat Navin or Navan. He doesn’t know where he was from. He says there would be fourteen band members of Pat Navin’s loaded onto a mini bus. He says it must have been a great wagon to take that load. Tim asks Donal if they ever had members from pipe bands or brass bands from the City. Donal mentions one man from the Blarney Brass & Reed Band. He says he was a good saxophone player but didn’t stay with them. He was the only one he thinks. He mentions another man called Jerry Casey who didn’t play with them but all of his sons did he says, he played with a brass and reed band in town. Tim asks if the saxophone was common with ceili bands at this time to which Donal says the Gallowglass Ceili Band was the first to use it. He says they picked it up from listening to Jim Cameron who had a cornet which he says was like a trumpet. The Gallowglass went to the sax, he says if you have a good man playing it can be lovely. Donal had the late Paddy Carey on the sax for thirty one years. He could play every note of it he says which is unusual for a sax player, he could play the C melody which would be part of old saxophones. The Sax player for the Gallowglass Mick Dempsey was a great player and a nice man he says. Donal says they would have recorded with the sax, he says they did about eight LP’s with the sax. Mick Dempsey tutored Paddy Carey on the sax, he says the weakest sax reed you can get is a number three and Mick used to shave it down to one and a half and he would be doing things like burning the top between two pennies. Donal speaks about the trumpet and how Jim Cameron would always play to the side and not directly out to the audience to dampen the sound. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.33.18 - 0.38.42 </td> <td> Tim asks what were the best years for the music and for the best for the money. Donal says the best years money and work wise were the mid 70’s to late 80’s. Donal says there was a belief that with ceili bands they didn’t need to be paid at all whereas with Showbands they would get a “thousand smackers” and they might have to be fighting for 350 pounds which was their fee in their heydays. He says they came from nothing and had nothing to start with and when they got the work you took it. He says the music didn’t suffer because of the money, they would play their best at all times. He speaks about the problems of having to make sure everyone in the band were paid. He says he had a seven piece band and then it would go down to six and then down to four because of the issues involved with paying everyone. He says nowadays you are down to about fifty or sixty people per gig because he says just the old people are dancing now. On asked did the recession affect things he says it did and he also speaks about drink driving regulations effecting gigs. On asked how did he get the contacts for gigs Donal says the promoters got to know them rather than vice versa and he adds that TV made them. He mentions a singer they had called Pat Daly. He says they never had any breakdowns going to the gigs except for one occasion where they ran out of petrol going from Dublin and they ran out of petrol by Glanmire. He mentions again the reliability of the Volkswagen. He says you would have to fight your corner with some promoters to get your money. He gives an example of a time they played one time they were playing for the GAA in Kilcormac County Offaly and they were booked to play from 10 to 1. He says at quarter to 12 there was no one there and they were practising and then two people came in, by the next half hour it was full, they had all been in the bars he said. Next thing they were told they had to play till half past 1. He says afterwards five members of the committee came up to him to pay him and they said to Donal that they must give him a cut. They said to him that they hadn’t started playing till quarter to 12 to which Donal said they had no one to play to and they had them booked from ten to one. One of the men then said to Donal, “do you know who I am?” “I’m JJ Spain and I’m the referee in the All-Ireland Semi Final tomorrow”. Donal told him he didn’t give a damn who he was and to this JJ Spain “fired” the money at him. Donal says you get an odd one like that here and there but the majority were great. He mentions Sonny Maybury of Dunmanway and Pat McCarthy of Cappamore in Co Limerick as grand people to play for. He says that with Pat McCarthy he booked him for ten nights and they never discussed money because they had an understanding and he says it would be the same with Sonny Maybury. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.38.42 - 0.49.06 </td> <td> Tim asks Donal if they did a lot of work for charity to which Donal says they did a pile of it. He says one thing the band would do every Christmas Morning would they would play the hospitals. They would play St Finbars and the Mercy Hospital which were the two they play the more often. They would also play St Patricks Hospital (Marymount). They did for about twenty five years. He says he did about twelve albums, when asked were any of them recorded in Cork he says one was done in Ballyvourney, another in Fermoy and the last one they did was in was in Youghal. The rest were done in Dublin and he adds it was expensive, he says it cost 100 pounds an hour and it was no place to be rehearsing as you’d want that done. He says they held a record for the fastest LP recorded and mixed at nineteen hours. He says you’d be talking about a couple of thousand pounds. He talks about one place that rigged the breakdown of the cost of recording. He says the studio suffered a power cut and that Donal walked outside and up the street, he says every house along the street had power so this proved that the studio had rigged the power cut to drag out the recording time and get paid more. They hid it rigged in the studio to cut the power off. Donal says there were two more numbers to record and they had to go back again. He speaks more about the recording process and getting the takes right, the pressures of getting it right etc. He advises always do an extra track. The entire band would play together in the studio. He mentions Bill Somerville- Large of Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin as a great engineer; he adds that he was a jazz pianist. He also worked for RTE he says. He speaks of his work with them on recording and how he helped them out with a piano piece. He says they recorded in Tadhg Kelleher’s studio in Ballyvourney which he says was top class. He speaks about recording in Brian O Reilly’s (of the band Loudest Whisper) studio in Fermoy. He says one thing he found there was you would want to be playing very tight and there would be no looseness at all. He mentions the Youghal recording as having been done in Clay Castle Studio. The differences in styles and age gaps are discussed. Bill Somerville-Large was the main producer in Dublin he says. He mentions Trend Studio and the engineers Paul Waldron and John Dallat. He mentions Fred Meyer as a good engineer; if you were in the studio mixing you’d come out nearly stone deaf as he’s have big speakers on. A discussion on mixing in the studio follows. The instruments of the band are discussed. Donal says he bought his accordion from Jimmy Shand. His brother Michael also bought his instrument from him. He says Jimmy Shand was over in Cork and Donal showed him his own accordion to which Jimmy said the keyboard was buckled, Donal adds that at this time he was driving the lorry and had “fingers like crowbars”. He tells a story about another accordion he was having tuned and how Jimmy Shand advised him to never sell it. He tells how Jimmy sold him a fiddle on the same occasion. Tim asks Donal if Jimmy Shand would have seen him as a protégé to which Donal says he thought a lot of the band and he would give credit where it was due. He tells how Jimmy wrote the Bridie Ring Polka for Donals wife to play and he wrote one for Donal and ones for the band, he was a gifted man he says. Further discussion of Jimmy Shand’s life and career follow. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.49.09 - 1.00.23 </td> <td> Tim asks Donal if he ever featured on a radio show called the Galtee Programme to which Donal says he doesn’t but he would listen to it a lot. It used to go out on a Monday at quarter past one. (Note: possibly a reference to Galtee Radio, an independent radio station that ceased transmitting in 2001) Crowleys music shop in Cork is discussed. Donal says he often dealt with Michael and his father Mick Crowley. Donal mentions a man known as Sham or Shan who worked in Crowleys shop when it was on Merchants Quay. He mentions another man whose surname was Welsh who worked for Crowleys. He says it is sad to see Crowley’s gone today. Tim says that Sheena Crowley, the daughter of Michael Crowley is running Crowley’s music shop from above the Palm Court (now the Oliver Plunkett). Tim asks Donal if he ever pass on his skills or teach anyone outside the family to which he says he has a bad patience that way, he says he might give them a hint but he never took up teaching. A discussion on the conditions in the venues follows, Donal says there was no such thing as dressing rooms, there was no heating or fan onstage. He says it improved in time and they got lighting and dressing rooms etc. He says how the cold would effect the instruments such as frost. He says you would have to be hardy. He says sometimes they had problems with band members drinking and disappearing off. He recalls one night when they were playing in Upton and three of the band were drinking. There were spot prizes such as bottles of whiskey. Donal says what he didn’t know was that the three band members had stolen the bottle of whiskey and they didn’t want him to see it so he says they went outside and he describes where the back wheel of the Volkswagen had a panel hiding half the wheel and they put the bottle into this and on top of the tyre where it couldn’t be seen. He says when he was unloading the wagon the bottle fell down with a bang and broke. He jokes that the lads were nearly in tears. He says drink is an awful scourge in a band. Donal says he doesn’t drink other than the off half pint. He says fellas would be falling off the stage or falling off a chair. He describes one time how Paddy Carey who didn’t drink was “fool acting” on stage when they were playing in Cahir Co Tipperary. Next thing before he knew where he was he had fallen into the pit. He describes another occasion when they were playing in Portarlington Co Laois and there big lampshades made from aluminium and hanging over the stage. Next thing he heard a crack and the rope holding up the lampshades broke and it fell down missing drummer Pat Riordan’s head by six inches, he says it would have killed him stone dead if it had hit him. Tim suggests that the Stardust fire in Dublin 1981 changed all that to which Donal agrees. He says fire chiefs came into St Francis Hall in Cork at this time when Donal’s band were playing there and pointed out that all the timber in the venue would have to be removed or else treated with fire proof paint. The fire proof paint option was chosen and Donal says they put no dryers in the paint and it took several months to dry by which time their audience from that venue was scattered and they never got them back. Tim asks about punters to the gigs going out all dressed up to which Donal says all the women would be for an hour before the men would come and they’d be on one side of the hall and then the men would arrive in from the bar. He says the style would be fierce. He talks about the dancing. He talks about how bars bringing in lounges affected dancehalls. He speaks about how dancehalls closed around the country and what a shame it is as he says it was a great outlet and people were happy dancing. He says the dancing was great exercise, they would start out the night with waltzes then two steps. He says in his time the foxtrot was considered a sin as it was too modern. He goes into detail about different dances such as the Siege Of Ennis, two hand reel, the Kipe, the stack o barley, the sweets of may, the Slosh which he says is very popular as its non streneous. He speaks about a man from the Northside of Cork City who was called “The MP” Foley. Donal says he did a lot for dancing and the dancers we have today we can give credit to the MP for. Donal says he was a very strict dance teacher. He says he wouldn’t allow close dancing and you wouldn’t be allowed in the door if you didn’t have a tie. Donal says he used to operate in Inniscarra, in Mourneabbey and then would run dances in Macroom, Glanworth. He was all over the place and taught the whole County Donal says. He made money from it but he earned it Donal adds. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 1.00.24 - 1.04.55 </td> <td> Tim asks Donal about Ladies Choices and if it was popular Donal says it was popular, and they don’t have that anymore. He says there would be “murder” if a girl refused a dance with a fellow. He says their MC would come up to him and complain that such a lady had refused such a fellow a dance. Donal says he took no notice but that it considered an offense. He says he often saw a fellow getting two or three refusals. He says he never saw any trouble over a refusal. Though he says there would be bitterness. He mentions his memory of the smell of paraffin oil and candle grease which was the treatment of the floor for dancing. When you went into the dancehall run by the MP in Inniscarra there would be a smell of paraffin oil and candle grease and the floor would be like glass. He says then crystals but they can’t be used today because of health and safety. Tim asks him about the competition from set dancing and the contrast with ceilis where the emphasis was more on fun and craic. Donal replies by saying that he thinks set dancing killed the whole thing, (the dancehalls). He says when the set dancing started to come in you had the ceili crowd sitting down watching polka set after polka and unable to contribute and then leaving. He says the set dancing crowd would have towels wiping the sweat off themselves. He says its very competitive and not every couple would dance with the next couple, they would have their own sets. Tim mentions that Donals son Donal Jnr that said before the interview that he had played for Irish dancers, Donal says that is competitive Irish dancing. He says the children are under too much pressure and the parents would be pushing them into it. He speaks about one night when there was a waltzing competition in Timoleague, there was a couple from Blackpool who were good dancers but didn’t win. He says they” lost it completely” and Donal said to the man whose name was Joe that tomorrow night there’ll be another competition and that he would win it but there was no getting through to him, he lost all sense of direction. He say competitions are fine if people are prepared to take their beating if it comes. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 1.04.56 - 1.09.45 </td> <td> Tim asks if there were any sayings or colloquialisms or phrases that were used to describe events in the venues that you wouldn’t hear anywhere else. To this Donal mentions the late Fr Roberts a Franciscan who used to be in St Francis Hall where there used to be a social for the Total Abstinence Association (the Pioneers). He would come in and he would always say to the Carrignavar boys “Where ever you go don’t go far, and keep away from Carrignavar”. He says he heard him saying that numerous times. He was a character Donal says. Donal tells a story about one night when they were starting off and they were playing in Fermoy. It was a two band session and they were on first. Donal and Paddy Carey went to the toilet and he says and while they were in there the MC announced over the speaker “for the last hour and a half you were listening to the Donal Ring Ceili Band” and a fellow in the toilet said “we were then”, Donal jokes that he wasn’t too impressed. He was the smoking in the halls was fierce, he adds that he was a smoker himself for forty three years. He says he had an operation, a quadruple bypass. He says he wasn’t long stopping after that, he says it is all psychological and he had been smoking forty a day. He goes on to talk about the efforts to give up smoking. He says Paddy used to smoke a pipe and there was a lot of smoke from it. He talks about a place in Middlesbrough, England where they played and the smoke was so thick your eyes would be sore. He says it was like thick fog. He speaks about another place in Crosshaven called Johnny’s Return where the smoke was unbelievable. They were playing there when the smoking ban was coming in and Donal said to himself it wouldn’t stop this crowd smoking and he came back three weeks later and there was a case of someone in Donegal who had been fined a thousand Euro for smoking and he says he couldn’t believe, there were no smokers in the venue. He says at the end of the day it was no harm to get rid of the smoking. He speaks about the smell of cigarette smoke on the instruments. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 1.09.46 - 1.17.46 </td> <td> Tim asks were there any accidents as a result of dancing. Donal says he saw a lot of bad falls but they always got up, except in one case where a man didn’t get up. He says he died dancing the Siege Of Ennis. He learned after that the man had heart problems and was warned to take it easy but he ignored the advice and he was dead before he hit the floor. He can’t think of anyone breaking a leg or arm. When asked would you see fights break out he says you would the time of the drink but not anymore. When people drinking you might se a skirmish. He recalls one time when they were playing and Ger Daly was the bossman. He says in the mineral bar a bit of an argument started and Ger Daly said “lads, lads, lads, and straight away that stopped it. When asked did they have bouncers in the halls he says they did, you wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of them he adds. He mentions the Galtymore dancehall in Cricklewood North London as a great place to play. He says the bouncers would have anyone misbehaving by the scruff of the neck. He says you would conduct yourself there. He says the Irish people who would go to the Galtymore as great. He says it was a great place for the grub. He talks about when they had finished playing there and were about to head for the ferry they got beef sandwiches given to them by the venue. He says they were very honourable and mentions the Byrne family who ran it. He speaks about another venue in Cricklewood they played in called the Spotted Terrier which is not far from the Galtymore. They played for a family called the Caseys who also had the Elephant And Castle. Donal says that they played all over London till they went and played Scotland in 1988. He says once they started playing Scotland they never really went back to England. He says it’s a different country and different scene. He says with them you’d have to play right and play so many bars for each dance and he jokes they’d be standing on the floor looking at you if you did it wrong. Tim asks Donal if they ever came across a tough element in London such as gangsters. Donal says they never encountered that. He says the only trouble they encountered was that most times they played London a bomb might go off. He says they were playing in Dublin the night Nelsons Pillar was blown up. In answer to Tim’ question of did they play the North Of Ireland he says he never played there. There follows a discussion about the Miami Showband Massacre of 1975. Tim says he saw them play the Seaview in Salthill Galway the night before it happened. Donal says they weren’t asked to play in the North during the troubles, after the Troubles when they played Scotland they got a slot in a place north of Belfast (he remembers later it was Ballymena). Donal says he was worried and said it to his friend in Scotland Brooke Lindsey in Scotland who said it to two friends in Belfast who were two brothers, Rea who play accordian. They in turn said that Donal needn’t be worried coming to the North. He says there was no problem but there was a split in the camp, (with the band) which he says is very common. He says they didn’t have a bad night or a great night. He says it was unsettling and you’d prefer to be somewhere else. Tim asks Donal if he ever composed any tunes himself. Donal says just one which is named Donal Rings Jig. He talks about the process of how he composed and recorded it. He says it has been recorded in Scotland since as a man rang and asked could he record it to which Donal agreed. When asked did he get any royalties from it he says not at all and he says people think that if they hear you on the radio you are making money. He says he is registered with IMRO or The Irish Music Rights Organisation.[Restricted Access section here 1.15.43 to 1.16.46 ] </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 1.17.47 - 1.25.55 </td> <td> He speaks about playing in the Opera House with a tenor called John MacNally for a fortnight one time. Tim says that’s a name he hasn’t heard in a while and that he was very prolific at one stage, Donal says he was a lovely singer and thinks he went to Australia after. Tim asks Donal if he ever played the old Opera House, Donal says he didn’t but he did see it burning down. He goes on to speak about this, he says he was over the other side of the river watching it. He watched the tail end of the fire early in the morning as the Opera House smouldered. There were a lot of people looking on. He was young at the time and it was a shame to see it burning. He says his parents never went into the old Opera House, they were tough times he says. He says maybe a small bit of snobbery attached to the Opera House and a certain clique if you wanted to get work there you couldn’t get work if you attached to them. He doesn’t know if that still applies to the modern Opera House but he has heard they are tough. Tim asks does he play music by local composers. Donal mentions Jerry Casey as one, also Noel Crowley who wrote a few melodies for them. There were a few tunes written for their band here and there by various people. Tim asks were there a lot of people writing at the time, Donal says a man did several of what on the recording sounds like “poetry” on the band (Note: cannot quite make out this word) written by a man from Whitegate whose name he can’t recall. He says he has some at home and must root them out. He says they did a lot of rehearsing before they did recordings, as he said before the recording was expensive so they couldn’t rehearse during it. He says they would rehearse without amplification out in the hall. He says in relation to the amps and equipment that they started out with rubbish. He says they would be buying stuff that they thought was great and then it would turn out to be not that good. It would be a long time before you buy the right stuff. He says he bought a Thule speakers and amplifier in America in 1974 that he still uses. The amp is only 100 watt and he says today everyone is using 2000 watt amps. He says he can put it up against any of them. He never had to open them bar one speaker when the wire fell off of it. He speaks about using the PB501 microphone for the accordians and how he came about using it. He says you can’t get them anymore. He has two of them and several members of the band of them. He says a “bomb came down” on a factory that manufactures components for it and you can’t get it anymore. Tim mentions Peavey to which Donal says they wouldn’t be as good as Thule. He always used mikes he says. It didn’t restrict them onstage he says. He says Paddy O Connor of RTE gave him advice on microphones and sound and said don’t forget to play nice and easy. He never used sound engineers in the band. He did the sound himself he says. He says in certain halls you would have feedback problems. He remembers one hall in Portarlington Co Laois and a man said if you can get sound in here I life my hat. Donal says when he put the speakers up on stage the sound was desperate. Eventually he put them on the floor off stage and the sound was perfect. The man who was talking about the sound couldn’t get over it. He says how when he went into a hall for the first time he would whistle and if you heard it echoing back you knew you were in trouble. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 1.25.56 - 1.35.23 </td> <td> Tim asks Donal if he ever played up the Glen, the Glen Hall in Blackpool. Donal says that’s where they started, they didn’t play the new one. He says the place was “black” with people, packed out completely. He say Jimmy O Rourke was running it and Donal says he was the man with the scoreboard afterwards at GAA matches at Pairc Ui Caoimh. Tim mentions that Donal had a song “the Bold Christy Ring” and asks did he know him. Donal says he did and that he was a great man. He says he didn’t talk a lot but he was very sincere. He says he met him after a County Final on a very wet day when the Glen were playing Youghal, Donal and Christy walked out together and they were talking about hurling. Christy said to him “look, if you’re a good player you’re a marked man, and you’ll know after a second ball whether they’re out to get you or not, and if you can’t take care of yourself you’ll be in big trouble”. He doesn’t know who wrote it. (Note: online sources indicate it is set to the tune of the Bold Thady Quill and the author of the lyrics remains unknbown) He never spoke about the song to Donal, it was very popular especially in Tipperary he says. He speaks about Paddy Carey singing it at shows and putting in mentions the Barrs, Jack Lynch and Glen Rovers, The Redmonds, Sean Og O Halpin and Julie Coughlan. He speaks of banter between Paddy and people from other counties at shows when he would sing it. Donal says he never met Sean O Riada, he says he did a lot for music. He says he was playing in Cashel County Tipperary recently and a lady came up speaking to him. She said she went to Coolea Irish College and she knew Sean O Riada and her father was a Clareman. She said she had read it the previous week that Sean O Riada was born in Cork and she couldn’t conceive that. Donal says he was a great man and his influence was enormous. He heard that he also played in Ceili bands. Donal speaks about the Cork singer Sean O Se. He sang with Donal often and they backed him. He is a fine artist he says. Donal says he knew Rory Gallagher, he says Rory used to go into Crowley’s. He says Rory played the Shand Marino accordion for a while with a band in West Cork and Donal says he has a photo somewhere of it. He thinks the name of the band was the Hawthorn or something like that. Tim mentions that Rory played with a band called the Fontana. Donal mentions a now deceased man called Joe Hayes who said to Donal did he remember when Donal said to Rory Gallagher that he should cut his hair. Donal said that he didn’t remember this. Joe said that it was as Rory was going into Crowley’s Music Shop and Donal who was walking outside on the footpath said to him “hello Rory, you should cut the hair, its getting very long”. Donal says he was a great man. Donal mentions a Cork tenor called Paul O Leary whom he says was the best tenor in the city. Tim returns to the subject of Rory Gallagher and asks Donal what he thought of his success. Donal says it was unbelieveable. He says he never played with him. Tim speaks about how Rory was experimenting with trad before his death and had worked with Ronny Drew. Donal speaks again about Rory starting on off the accordion. Tim asks did they work to a set list. Donal says they did within reason. It would happen in Scotland all right, they would get a setlist sheet he says. He remembers once they were playing in Dufftown in Scotland and at quarter to two there were three dancers left and he was convinced they would finish up but they kept going to get value for money. He doesn’t think anyone wrote a song about him, he jokes that a fellow has to die before they will talk about him. Tim says when he was young he would hear of a man who was nicknamed “Take the floor” Dinjo. (Note: Denis Fitzgibbon who hosted a popular Irish music dancing radio show called Take The Floor) Donal says he had a great influence on the scene. His father was mad for listening to him on the radio. Donal says he worked with him once when they did a tour with the Blarney Ceili band. They did a tour of Kerry and parts of Cork with Dinjo. He agrees that the Irish dancing came across well on the radio because you could hear the tapping. Donal thought it was a great idea. He says he knew the folklorist and broadcaster Ciarán Mac Mathúna as well, he did great work for Irish music he says. He says Paddy O Connor was talking about doing the recordings with him on the radio recently. He lived for Irish music he says. Tim mentions a number of names of traditional Irish musicians, Jackie Daly, Matt Cranitch and Seamus Creagh. Donal says he went to school with Matt Cranitch’s father and knows Matt well. Donal says he has a saying which he has often told. If you got a line long enough and start in Kinsale and divide Ireland in two up to the North every musician on the East Coast is superior to those on the West which he admits is a controversial opinion. He says all the best musicians were on the Eastern side of the line, he lists some. The Gallowglass Ceili Band, Jackie Ahern, Dermot O Brien, Blarney Ceili Band, Jackie Hearst.. He admits that the Kilfenora Céilí Band were very good and his own father was a great Kilfenora man but he says he never liked the pure trad style, he likes a cleaner style but he says they were a dance band. He says he has a cousin in Ballingeary who is a great player and he jokes he will kill him for saying it but he says when musicians from the West and East coasts play together they’re not together. There’s different interpretations of the tune by different players. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 1.35.25 - 1.42.05 </td> <td> Tim mentions the renowned Clare fiddle player Martin Hayes and asks if he was a member of the Kilfenora Céilí Band to which Donal says he thinks he was. He say the Kilfenora have come along in a big way and he’s delighted for them. Tim mentions Dermot O'Brien the musician from Co Louth who was also a GAA footballer. Donal says the best the three best accordion players in the country were from Louth, he lists them as Dermot O Brien, Fintan Stanley and Paddy Neary. When Tim asks Donal where he would put himself Donal says he was alright to which Tim says he heard he was one of the best. Tim asks him if he knew other well known Cork characters such as Bernie Murphy and Bishop Con Lucey. Donal says he knew Bernie Murphy well and he mentions another Cork character from Fairhill who would do a trick where he would flip a penny up in the air then kick it up again with the heel of his shoe and then catch it in his coat pocket. He can’t think of his name but thinks his first name was Donie. Donal says he would do this trick for fun. He was famous for this trick and would do it on the street. (Note: this mans name was Donie Murphy and his nickname was Mad Donie. This information was found on the Facebook group Old Photographs Of Cork City And County). Donal mentions another Cork character who was known as the Bowler. He would bowl the bowls down Patrick Street. Donal says he came from Shandon. He would wear a white raincoat and a cap and Donal was selling confectionary at the time and he would meet him and the Bowler would say to him “I bate Mick Barry boy!” (Mick Barry the famous bowler). Donal would be ribbing him and said he didn’t to which the Bowler would say “watch this” and he threw the bowl down Patrick Street. Donal says there wasn’t as much traffic on the street then but it was still dangerous as it was an iron ball. Donal says he met Mick Barry the Cork bowler once when he was sick out in Ballincollig, Donal says his wife Bridies uncle beat him at bowling once, Jamsey Sullivan (James O Sullivan) from Killeens and he had the cup to show for it. He says that Jamsey threw a bowl up on top of the viaduct (on the Cork to Bandon road) but Mick Barry threw the bowl over it which was a sixteen ounce ball. He says the O Sullivan’s were all great bowlers and he mentions another Paul O Sullivan another from Blackpool Benny. He mentions they were also great tug o war men. There was a tug o war team in Killeens one time and in connection with this he mentions a Dan Twohig, he says the Twohigs were great men. He says you could hurt yourself easily at tug o war. Tim asks what did Donal think of Riverdance and he said it was unreal. He says it didn’t do themselves in the band any harm audience wise. He says Michael Flatley is a great dancer and Donal went to see the live show, he says everything about it is spot on. He can see it continuing on, he agrees that it fed the competitive side of dancing. Tim asks Donal if he thinks RTE were good to Cork music in general to which Donal says he doesn’t think so. He says they had to fight to get on it. He says that they were lucky that Donncha O Dulaing liked the band and put them on a lot of shows. He says Gina Dale Haze And The Champions who he says were a great band never got a shot on RTE, he says it was the same with the Gallowglass Ceili Band. He can’t understand it, he says they got on radio all right and the Blarney band but he says “if you’re not in Dublin you’re only in Ireland”. Tim asks about the BBC if they ever contacted them to which Donal says they did a few shows with BBC Scotland. Tim asks if the clergy ever got involved in the dancing (in an authoritarian way) to which Donal says they never interfered with them. He mentions a Fr Jim Donovan in Blackpool who was then moved to Dunmanway and he would book them for Dunmanway, he got them a lot of work there. He is now in Ballinlough he says. Tim ask if he has seen any young up and coming Cork acts that appeal to him and how he sees the ceili business going. He mentions that his son Donie started an accordion night in Pa Johnsons, the pub and people come from all round for it. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 1.42.07 - 0.00.00 </td> <td> Donal speaks about his hopes for the future of ceili. He would like to see it continue but the thinks when his generation are gone we will have to wait a good few years for it to come Back and he believes it will come back in a cycle, he says everything gets a cycle but he can’t see it coming back for a long time. Tim asks him does he go see live acts these days to which Donal says now and again. He says a lot of them are one or two man bands, he says they are earning their money as it is tough with just one or two in terms of setting up equipment etc. Tim asks Donal if he used to read Spotlight Magazine and if he ever made the cover. (Note: Spotlight was an Irish music magazine mainly focusing on Showbands, it was later re- named New Spotlight). Donal says he heard of it. He mentions that Top Of The Pops was in that and a song he recorded called “Beautiful City” in Top Of Pops for six weeks. (Note: The reference to Top Of The Pops appears to be a reference to a music charts related section of Spotlight rather than the BBC music programme). Donal says he got a call from John Woods of Polydor Records, Donal mentions that he was a brother of Michael Woods the Fianna Fáil TD. John said to Donal that there was big demand for a song called Beautiful City and he asked would Donal and his band record it. Donal says the tenor Paul O Leary whom he mentioned earlier was singing it. They left and Donal was in his car and Paul was after buying a Renault. Donal says he passed Paul, then Paul passed him and vice versa. They arrived in Portlaoise and they were booked in there for lunch. Donal says a Mrs Grey came out and said they were in big trouble and one of the band were after going into the bog in Urlingford. Paul O Leary, and Donal’s brother Michael and Paul O Leary were in the car. She said no one was hurt but they were shaken. Paul had lost control coming into Urlingford and the car swung around and went into the bog. He mentions that Beautiful City was six weeks at number two in the Irish charts; they were just behind the Dixie’s. He says they didn’t come close with anything after. A discussion of Donal’s collection of photographs follows, talk of looking through them on another day is discussed. Tim mentions that Donal was winner of Cork Person Of The Month. A reception in City Hall for him is discussed and Donal says the president of the time Mary Macalise was there. Donal says that the man who set up the Cork to Swansea ferry won it (Cork Person Of The Year), Conor Buckley. He mentions that the service is now gone again. He says of his own night in the City Hall it was a bit nerve wracking. The City Council were very good to him he says and it was a great night. He got Cork Person Of The Month for March he says. He says that Sean McCarthy, the Cork sculptor did a bust of Donal which is out in the hall of his home for the bands 50’th anniversary. He mentions that he’ll be 80 soon and will be having a big night in Glenville at the end of the week. He says he might do simple stuff like Waltzes as jigs and reels are too strenuous at 80. Tim thanks Donal for speaking to him and wraps up the interview. Interview ends 1.49.05 </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Donal Ring Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 06.10.2015 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Cork Folklore Project Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CFP_SR00564_ring_2015 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Cork Folklore Project Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Cork Folklore Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Cork Folklore Project Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Cork Folklore Project Language A language of the resource English Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Audio/Wav Description An account of the resource Donal speaks about his career in music with the Donal Ring Ceili Band. How his interest in music stemmed from his father, a melodeon player. His first band with Donal Coleman from Grenagh. The Celtic Ceili Band from Mallow. Accordian player Noel Crowley from Dillon’s Cross. Donal’s early manager the comedian Tony Hegarty. Trying to get onto RTE television, the RTE shows Beirt Eile and Club Céilí. The story of how Jack Lynch helped to get Donal’s band their first television slot on RTE. Kevin McCourt, Director General of RTE. Denis Fitzgibbon. Take The Floor Dinjo. Stories of touring around Ireland to concerts in Donals Volkswagen mini bus. Dancehalls. Showbands. The Dixies. Joe Mac. Gina Dale Haze And The Champions. The Miami Showband Massacre. Playing in Northern Ireland. How the Troubles effected touring to the North. Donal’s job truck driving and involvement in the construction of Whitegate oil refinery and Cork Airport. Involvement in transporting sugar beet. Health and safety. Different makes of accordion. The Shand Morino accordion. Scottish accordion player Jimmy Shand. Louth accordian players Paddy Neary ,Dermot O Brien, Fintan Stanley. Scottish musician Jim Cameron. Anecdotes about Rory Gallagher and Crowley’s Music Shop. How Rory Gallagher played accordion in a ceili band in his youth. Singer Sean O Se. Sean O Riada. Country N Western star Robert Mizzell. Windmill Lane recording Studio. Bill Somerville- Large. Clay Castle Recording Studio Youghal. Jackie Daly, Matt Cranitch and Seamus Creagh. The Gallowglass Ceili Band, the Celtic Ceili Band, the Blarney Ceili Band. Blarney Brass & Reed Band. The Regal Showband. Cork band the Arrivals. Concerts in Cork City Hall. The Palm Court Ballroom. (the Oliver Plunket) . St Francis Hall. Fr Roberts a Franciscan priest of St Francis Hall. The effect on Dancehalls of the building of lounges in pubs. Types of dances, the Foxtrot, jigs and reels, Siege Of Ennis, Riverdance, Michael Flatley, the Kipe, the stack o barley, the sweets of may, the Slosh. Dance teacher The MP” Foley. Fiddler Margaret McCarthy. Waltzing competitions. Set dancing. Road bowling. Bowler Mick Barry. Jamsey Sullivan bowler from Killeens. Tug o war. Dan Twohig. Donal’s memories of Cork hurler Christy Ring. Christy speaking to him about the techniques of hurling. Na Piarsaigh hurling club. An eccentric character from Shandon nicknamed “The Bowler” who would claim to have beaten Mick Barry and who bowled a ball down Patrick Street. Fairhill character Donie Murphy “Mad Donie” and his famous coin trick. How downloading has effected the sale in cds. GAA. Hurling. The Barrs. Pairc Ui Caoimh. Songwriter Jimmy McCarthy, Donal’s family connection with him. Cork sculptor Sean McCarthy. Spotlight Magazine. The song Beautiful City and how Donal and his band had a hit with it in the Irish charts. Donal being awarded Cork Person Of The Month. The Kilfenora Céilí Band. Clare fiddle player Martin Hayes. The Stardust fire and its effect on fire safety regulations. Dress attire at dances. Men asking women to dance at dances. Ladies Choices. Recording sessions and how recording studios charged by the hour, how some orchestrated power cuts deliberately to draw out the recording process. Comical stories of life on the road touring. Playing chess on the tour bus. How a lampshade nearly fell on a bandmember. Traditional Irish music folklorist Ciarán Mac Mathúna. accordion band Brendan Bowyer Career Cars Céilí Ceili Band Clothes Dancehalls Dillon’s Cros RTE media Music Sean O Riada Sean O Se Showbands https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/9dde99dfb8c30959c16d206fed725dfe.jpg 09c3c32785cd04f3d17139aa5e447bed https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/4df00acc9dfcbdd0625d945acc0d43a0.jpg 19be12e2e247f702aa60e8ab2b9ea394 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Interviewees’ brother William O’Sullivan right of picture at Heatherside Sanatorium. Left of picture is Irish poet Seán O’ Riordan. Photo courtesy of Michael O’Sullivan. https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/e11e4f2f0d6ecb76ce3d53a53746c38a.mp3 cf4b28ad079abeeedd26074d0a8dcb3a Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Catching Stories (of Infectious Disease In Ireland) <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Catching-Stories-w-logos-3.png" style="width:350px;height:100px;" alt="Catching-Stories-w-logos-3.png" /> Subject The topic of the resource Life History; Ireland; Health; Communicable diseases; Epidemics; Poliomyelitis; Polio; Postpoliomyelitis syndrome; Tuberculosis; TB; Measles; Diphtheria; COVID-19; Vaccines; Description An account of the resource Catching Stories is a folklore-STEM collaboration project funded through the <a style="color:#4a6ee0;background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" target="_blank" href="https://www.sfi.ie/" class="editor-rtfLink" rel="noreferrer noopener">Science Foundation Ireland</a> (SFI) Discover Programme. The project was concerned with those who had first had experiences of being stricken with the disease, their family members and the public health practitioners who served on the frontline of past epidemics. The diseases the project focused on were: polio, tuberculosis, diphtheria and measles, Spanish flu and COVID-19. The project grew from seed funding through the Irish Research Council and University College Cork's(UCC) College of Arts, Celtic Studies & Social Sciences. This funding enabled the team to collate material in the Cork Folklore Project's archive and create a pilot online resource. In 2022 the project was awarded an SFI Discover grant that allowed the team to undertake new bespoke interviews and grow the online dissemination platform. To date (February 2023), Catching Stories consists of XX interviews. 'Catching Stories' has also been drawn from the Cork Folklore Project Sound Archive for other related material. The project's main output is an online resource (<a style="color:#4a6ee0;background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" target="_blank" href="http://www.catchingstories.org" class="editor-rtfLink" rel="noreferrer noopener">www.catchingstories.org</a>). This website places personal oral testimonies adjacent to scientific information about the diseases. There was also a series of talks and presentations for <a style="color:#4a6ee0;background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" target="_blank" href="https://catchingstories.org/events/" class="editor-rtfLink" rel="noreferrer noopener">Heritage Week 2022, Culture Night 2022 and Science Week 2022</a>. With support from <a style="color:#4a6ee0;background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" target="_blank" href="https://www.ucc.ie/en/apc/" class="editor-rtfLink" rel="noreferrer noopener">APC Microbiome</a>, SFI and UCC's <a style="color:#4a6ee0;background:transparent;margin-top:0pt;margin-bottom:0pt;" target="_blank" href="https://libguides.ucc.ie/library" class="editor-rtfLink" rel="noreferrer noopener">Boole Library,</a> the Catching Stories team curated the interactive multimedia exhibition, Catching Stories of Infectious Disease in Ireland (16 February - 25 June 2023), in UCC's Boole Library. The Exhibition was subsequently taken by the Heatlh Service Executive and displayed in their campuses and buildings throughout Cork and Kerry. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2019-2023 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Interviewees: Lesley Cox; Evelyn Wainwright; Emma Conway Clarke; Michael Hussey; Paul O'Brien, James Hoare Nagle; Edward Tanner; Michael and Theresa O'Sullivan, Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Ireland; 1920s-2020s Relation A related resource Website <a href="https://catchingstories.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">www.catchingstories.org</a> <img src="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/e9fc50934d016888e8a29de8e14d25d4.JPG" style="width:500px;height:250px;" alt="e9fc50934d016888e8a29de8e14d25d4.JPG" /> Here you can engage with the collected material side by side with biomedical commentary from immunologist Dr Elizebeth Brint. Presentation and Listening Events Heritage Week 2022 <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Heritage-Week-2022-Library-talk-300x169.jpg" alt="Heritage-Week-2022-Library-talk-300x169.jpg" /> For Heritage Week project coordinator James Furey gave a presentation of the project at Cork City Library Grand Parade. Culture Night 2022 <img class="size-medium wp-image-407 alignnone" src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Culture-Night-2020-30-300x224.jpg" alt="Culture-Night-2020-30-300x224.jpg" /><img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Culture-Night-2020-6-300x224.jpg" alt="Culture-Night-2020-6-300x224.jpg" /> For Culture night the team went to the streets to set up a ‘time travelling’ vaccination clinic outside the old medical centre on Grattan St Cork City. Willing participants sat on a bench and heard Joe Scanlon’s story of receiving the ‘Branding Iron’, Joe’s term for the vaccine apparatus used in the 1950s. Joe’s story and the event elicited a great response from those who took part. Science Week 2022 <img src="https://corkfolklore.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Science-Week-2022-2-724x1024.png" style="width:200px;height:300px;" alt="Science-Week-2022-2-724x1024.png" /> Celebrate Science Family Day on 13th November 2022 <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/IMG_5840-300x200.jpg" alt="IMG_5840-300x200.jpg" /> Our first outing for Cork Science Festival was at the ‘Celebrate Science’ Family Day at University College Cork’s Western Gateway Building. For this event, we fired up the ‘Time-machine’ to bring participants on a trip to 1958, the day Joe Scanlon received a vaccine, or as Joe calls it, <a href="https://catchingstories.org/getting-the-vaccine/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">‘The Branding Iron’</a>. <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/IMG_5844-300x200.jpg" alt="IMG_5844-300x200.jpg" /> The Catching Stories team held four sessions. We played Joe’s story and quizzed our audience on their knowledge of infectious diseases and their memory of receiving vaccines. There was excellent engagement with both young and old. The younger participants left with a greater understanding of diseases like polio and tuberculosis. And the older members relayed their stories of getting vaccinated and how infectious diseases had encroached on their lives. Science Week Talk UCC Student Hub Those who braved the horrendous rain on November 15th were delighted to shelter in The Shtepps to hear the presentation from James Furey and Beth Brint on how folklore and STEM can work together to bring new perspectives on health education and understanding. Exhibition <img src="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/d3170f22a998193439e53217786f14ea.jpg" style="width:200px;height:300px;" alt="d3170f22a998193439e53217786f14ea.jpg" /> The exhibition in UCC's Boole Library (16 February - 25 June 2023), was an innovative exploration of how to engage people with a topic that does not lend itself too easily to public dissemination. The exhibition foregrounded the human voice through audio installations (Made by Dr Jeffery Weeter), links to interviews, and interaction with physical objects. It invited visitors to join interviewees in the experience of manually ventilating a child with polio throughout the night in 1956 and to move along a waiting-room bench when facing vaccination by the dreaded ‘Branding Iron’ or to imagine the loss of a childhood classmate from measles. Artworks by <a href="https://lesleycoxart.com/earlier-works-3-polio-series/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Lesley Cox</a> also explore the impact of polio on families and communities. <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1676973595601-scaled.jpg" style="width:350px;height:650px;" alt="1676973595601-scaled.jpg" /><img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1676973595744-scaled.jpg" style="width:300px;height:650px;" alt="1676973595744-scaled.jpg" /> <img src="https://catchingstories.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/1676973595665-scaled.jpg" style="width:650px;height:350px;" alt="1676973595665-scaled.jpg" /> <img src="https://lesleycoxart.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/image29.jpg" style="width:350px;height:650px;" alt="image29.jpg" />(©Lesley Cox) Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource James Furey Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Cork Folklore Project Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Cork Folklore Project Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Audio Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource .wav Files Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Michael O'Sullivan and Theresa O’Sullivan Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Susan O’Sullivan Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 53m35s Location The location of the interview Fair Hill, Cork City Time Summary A summary of an interview given for different time stamps throughout the interview <table> <tbody> <tr> <td> Start Time </td> <td> Question/General Theme </td> <td> Topics in Summary </td> </tr> <tr> <td> *1:15 </td> <td> Intro to family history </td> <td> Brother and sisters in sanatoriums for TB. Brother for 7 years, sisters for circa 2-4 years. Michael was told about 2 years ago after a chest x-ray that he probably had TB, but he was not aware of it. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 3:00 </td> <td> Cont. </td> <td> Visiting sister in sanatorium on interviewees wedding day </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 4:50 </td> <td> What ages were brother and sisters when they had TB </td> <td> Brother 17, sisters in 20s, 30s. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 5:47 </td> <td> What symptoms? </td> <td> Coughing up blood, constant cough </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 6:20 </td> <td> How was TB diagnosed? </td> <td> Doctor and x-ray </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 6:45 </td> <td> What hospital? </td> <td> North Infirmary </td> </tr> <tr> <td> *6:50 </td> <td> What Medications? </td> <td> Bottle with pink/purple liquid, used for everything. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 7:45 </td> <td> How were they transferred to sanatorium </td> <td> Ambulance </td> </tr> <tr> <td> *8:40 </td> <td> Did you know how TB was transmitted? </td> <td> No, was told it wasn’t contagious. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> *8:50 </td> <td> Did family talk about TB? </td> <td> No too embarrassed, shame, linked to poverty </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 11:00 </td> <td> Were you aware of others in community with TB? </td> <td> No there was a stigma surrounding it. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 12:09 </td> <td> Did you wear masks, or clean the house? </td> <td> No masks, but lots of scrubbing with ‘Jeyes Fluid’ </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 13:10 </td> <td> What sounds would be heard in the house? </td> <td> Coughing, wheezing. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 13:30 </td> <td> Did people with TB look different? </td> <td> Ghastly, Lethargic </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 14:10 </td> <td> </td> <td> Brother would go hunting ferrets, get cold and wet, maybe made him susceptible to TB. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 14:50 </td> <td> Did doctors visit house? </td> <td> Yes, didn’t wear masks </td> </tr> <tr> <td> *15:00 </td> <td> Would people have gathered in groups outside, inside? </td> <td> Yes churches, cinemas and sporting events would be packed. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 16:10 </td> <td> Did priests talk about TB at mass? </td> <td> No never mentioned it, maybe out of fear. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 16:30 </td> <td> What about the radio? </td> <td> Yes, Noel Browne TD minister for health. Brother had great respect for him and all that he did. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 17:40 </td> <td> Was visiting allowed at sanatorium? </td> <td> Yes, but only outside. Interviewees remember visiting sister on their wedding day </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 18:20 </td> <td> Did your parents visit? </td> <td> Yes, regularly, by taxi. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> *18:44 </td> <td> Cont. </td> <td> When interviewees visited on their wedding day, the car broke down on the way. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 18:55 </td> <td> Cont. </td> <td> They had photographs taken on their wedding say at the sanatorium. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 19:12 </td> <td> Did you visit your brother? </td> <td> No too far away (Doneraile). </td> </tr> <tr> <td> *19:30 </td> <td> What did you see at the sanatoriums? </td> <td> People sitting about talking, in their night gowns, dressing gowns, seemed happy, some played Pitch and Putt </td> </tr> <tr> <td> * </td> <td> Cont. </td> <td> The patients were involved in craft making, dolls, leather objects. Interviewee still has leather wallet that his brother made him at Heatherside Sanatorium </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 20:00 </td> <td> Did someone teach them these crafts? </td> <td> Not sure, but think someone came to sanatoriums to teach them. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 21:27 </td> <td> Cont. </td> <td> All the windows were open, lots of fresh air </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 22:00 </td> <td> Do you have an idea of how many patients were at sanatorium? </td> <td> No but both genders, no children. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 22:38 </td> <td> Was there a special diet? </td> <td> No but they were well fed </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 23:11 </td> <td> It must have been difficult for parents with children at sanatorium? </td> <td> Yes </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 23:35 </td> <td> Did parents ever talk about it? </td> <td> No, they never talked, we were not told anything. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> *25:47 </td> <td> Do you remember the day your brother came home? </td> <td> Yes remember him coming through the door, he had put on a lot of weight, didn’t recognise him, everyone was nervous. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 27:40 </td> <td> Was he different? </td> <td> yes </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 28:05 </td> <td> Did your brother go back to work? </td> <td> Yes as chef in Savoy Cinema Cork, and also worked in a confectioners in Gerald Griffin Street Cork </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 30:00 </td> <td> Are there similarities with Covid 19? </td> <td> Yes, people are scared and avoiding each other </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 31:24 </td> <td> </td> <td> Reminded of Polio in 1950s </td> </tr> <tr> <td> *31:50 </td> <td> Theresa what are your experiences of TB? </td> <td> Cousin Elsie was in Mount Desert Sanatorium. Theresa’s father would take her to visit Elsie, talks about country girls dying of TB at sanatorium. Elsie worked in mortuary, she was then transferred to St. Finbarr’s hospital </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 34:45 </td> <td> Cont. </td> <td> Theresa’s friend brother John was in Sarsfield’s Court sanatorium for 2 years. He never worked again after he came home, was weak and had bad chest. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 35:59 </td> <td> What ages were they? </td> <td> Elsie was 18, John in his 30s. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 36:11 </td> <td> What do you mean by country girls? </td> <td> Farmers daughters, usually from Cork and Kerry </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 36:40 </td> <td> Do you remember how the buildings looked? </td> <td> There were wards and the main hospital, lots of fresh air, open windows, people sitting around talking. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 37:35 </td> <td> Did they ever talk about the food? </td> <td> No they never discussed food. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 38:05 </td> <td> How long were they there? </td> <td> About 2 years </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 38:16 </td> <td> Did Elsie lay out/prepare the dead of her own accord? </td> <td> Yes of her own accord. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 38:50 </td> <td> Do you remember anything about the wards, rooms? </td> <td> Some patients were in rooms of 2 beds, some in ward with 4-6 beds. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 39:20 </td> <td> Did your parents ever talk about TB? </td> <td> No never </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 39:45 </td> <td> Do you see a comparison with Covid 19? (Theresa). </td> <td> There were no masks, but you did avoid people if they coughed, you got out of the way fast, but we were told it wasn’t contagious. Sensitisation was never mentioned. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 40:33 </td> <td> Did people cover their mouths when they coughed? </td> <td> No </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 40:50 </td> <td> Were patients allowed to leave the sanatorium? </td> <td> No, they were confined to the grounds, a lot of the time they were dressed, in suits and ties etc. Reading books </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 41:30 </td> <td> What about exercise? </td> <td> There was no talk of exercise. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 42:50 </td> <td> Cont. </td> <td> Interviewees mention a pink ointment that was often used for various illnesses, but can’t recall its name. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 43:00 </td> <td> Were there any visible markings caused by TB? </td> <td> Could be hunched up from coughing. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> *44:30 </td> <td> Did you see nurses at the sanatoriums? </td> <td> Yes, dressed in white, no masks, gloves or aprons. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 45:00 </td> <td> Was music played? </td> <td> Yes people came in to play music, but can’t remember who. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 45:56 </td> <td> Any advice for younger people today and Covid 19? </td> <td> Not to smoke. Everybody smoked in 1940’s and 50s, no warnings of danger. Woodbines cigarettes. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 47:00 </td> <td> Did they smoke in the sanatoriums? </td> <td> Outside </td> </tr> <tr> <td> *47:30 </td> <td> Cont. </td> <td> People got relief from smoking. There were very few that didn’t smoke, Theresa’s father smoked to get relief from dust inhaled in his job as a shoemaker. Michael’s father worked in a flour mill and he would get relief from the inhaled flour by smoking. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 49:00 </td> <td> Did the sisters that had TB smoke? </td> <td> No another sister did and she never contracted TB </td> </tr> <tr> <td> *49:30 </td> <td> When did you find out that you might have had TB as a child? (Michael). </td> <td> 2 years ago. I was spitting up blood, had x-ray and doctor said lungs were scarred from TB. But I didn’t know I had TB. I had Pleurisy in the 1950s with the same symptoms. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> *50:20 </td> <td> Do you think people had TB and didn’t know it? </td> <td> Yes, some were afraid to go to the doctor, others didn’t wasn’t to go to doctor because they could end up in a sanatorium </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 51:00 </td> <td> Cont. </td> <td> I wonder what bloated my brother in the sanatorium. He was very heavy when he came out. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 51:30 </td> <td> Maybe because he wasn’t very active there? </td> <td> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> *52:00 </td> <td> Is there anything that comes to mind before we finish the interview? </td> <td> We are lucky to have survived this long, I haven’t been sick a day in my life (Michael jokingly). We are after our Covid vaccine now and we are not doing too badly. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 53: 34 </td> <td> Thank you for doing this interview </td> <td> Thank You, we didn’t get your name (Michael jokingly). </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Michael O'Sullivan and Theresa O’Sullivan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 22.03.2021 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Cork Folklore Project Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CFP_SR00795_Osullivan_2021 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Cork Folklore Project Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Cork Folklore Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Cork Folklore Project Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Cork Folklore Project Language A language of the resource English Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource wav Description An account of the resource Michael and Theresa are husband and wife and live on Fairhill on the north side of Cork city. Michael is 87 years old and Theresa is 85 years old. In this interview they both talk about their experiences of TB in Cork during the 1940s and the 1950s. In particular Michael talks about 3 siblings that contracted TB and spent time in sanatoriums. His brother spent 4 years at Heatherside Sanatorium in north Cork before being transferred to St. Finbarr’s hospital for a further 3 years. Two of Michael’s sisters spent between 2-4 years at Sarsfield Court sanatorium. Michael talks about visiting his sisters but not his brother because of distance and lack of transport. To this end he did not see his brother for 7 years. Michael talks about the emotions experienced when his brother came home. Michael talks about visiting his sister at Sarsfield sanatorium on his wedding day with his wife and talks about the car breaking down en route. Michael also talks about learning that he had TB when a chest x-ray in circa 2018 revealed scarring on his lungs reminiscent of TB. Theresa talks about her cousin Elsie who spent time in Mount Desert Sanatorium. Theresa talks about how Elsie would help to lay out the dead in the mortuary. Theresa also talks about the many young girls that died of TB at the sanatorium. During the interview the girls are referred to as country girls which Theresa explains was a term used to describe the daughters of farmers. Theresa talks about the girls catching TB from cattle on the farm. Theresa also talks about a friend called John who spent time at Sarsfields Court sanatorium with TB. When John was released home he was never able to work again due to a weak chest as a result of recurring chest infections. Michael and Theresa discuss family, community and societal attitudes towards TB. They talk about what people were told about TB and how they believed TB was transmitted. They talk about visiting the sanatoriums and the lack of social restrictions that they observed there. They talk about how fresh air was considered a treatment for TB and how the patients spent a lot of time outdoors. Michael and Theresa talk about the popularity of smoking and describe how some would find relief from breathing difficulties through smoking. Michael and Theresa conclude their interview with a discussion on the current Covid 19 pandemic and discuss the differences and similarities with the TB pandemic of the 1940s and the 1950s. Subject The topic of the resource Tuberculosis blood Cattle Cigarettes Cork city Coughing Covid 19 Doctor Fairhill Handcrafts Heatherside Sanatrium Leather Michael O’ Sullivan Mortuary Mount Desert Sanatorium Noel Browne North Infirmary Hospital Pleurisy Polio preparing the dead Priest Sanatorium Sarsfield Court Sanatorium smoking St. Finbarr’s Hospital Theresa O’ Sullivan Tuberculosis (TB) Woodbines https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/f562ece7cc87e70b4c5d0d377c9e2bd6.jpg 1f03cbb120b155d41988136d73b090ae https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/12489c95b7e4a60fa1b10904d3631197.wav 6977102c507d41b323da1f6221841576 Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Con O’Callaghan Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Kieran Murphy Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 106min 24sec Location The location of the interview Douglas Time Summary A summary of an interview given for different time stamps throughout the interview <table> <tbody> <tr> <td> 0.00.28 - 0.05.01 </td> <td> Con recalls his child hood growing up on fuller’s road in the Lough area of Cork city (shallow limestone lake south west of cork city). And how it was a lovely area to grow up in at the time he then mentions it was over 70 years ago since he was a child growing up in that area. And how his father had the first car in the area and how there house had a side garden and how his father would park the car in the side of the house. Con then mentions how as kids they would play on the road and how it was cul de sac (a street with only one inlet or outlet) and how there was no cars so they had the entire street to play on. Cons then mentions that it is not like 20022 were houses have two or three cars. Con explains were he went to school in Sullivan’s quay and how he started his schooling in saint Marys of the isle as child and then moved over to Sullivan’s quay secondary school. Con then recalls how his father wanted him to go to college but how he had no interest in going and how he always wanted to work with his hands and how he wanted to become a carpenter. Con then explains how at the age of 14 how he got his apprenticeship with a small builder called JJ O Connell and how he went out of business just as Con was finished his apprenticeship. And how he then went working for various builders he then mentions the building firms as been PJ Hegarty and sisks on Building sites and how he worked on housing schemes and big industrial concrete scheme were they would be building reservoir’s. He also remembers moving jobs at this time to the regional Technical college now (CIT Bishoptown) as trainee foreman Then meeting his wife of 49 years. And Con recalls how her mother who had Connections in the (OPW) (office of public works) were he then was Offered job as a carpenter and how he encountered architect who became a friend who had the Same interest as him in sailing and how he was a member of the Royal Cork Yacht club in Crosshaven. Con then recalls been offered a job as inspector with OPW Because people working on building sites had better money and Did not want to join the OPW so the commissioner of (OPW) at the time came up with a scheme to train people within The (OPW) to become inspectors so at 50 Con became an Inspector with (OPW). And he goes into detail on how he returned to do computer classes as he had no knowledge of computers and how he received his ECDL Certifications. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.05.01 - 0.09.03 </td> <td> Con then goes into detail on how he returned to do computer classes as he had no knowledge of computers and how he received his ECDL Certifications. Con then mentions that he is a recovering alcoholic and goes into detail about this part of his life and his wife Been a student at UCC at this time and why he stopped drinking alcohol and Got Help in Tabor lodge ( addiction treatment service) and he is Active member of Alcoholics Anonymous and how his bosses were helpful to him in this period of his life and how he got opportunity for promotions within the OPW. CHECCK THIS WITH KEIRAN AND TOMAS. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.09.03 - 0.19.06 </td> <td> Con then goes on to say how he got into the music scene as Drummer And percussionist as a African drummer with drum Village and when Martin Aherne a community health worker For the (HSE) (health service Executive) advertised in local newspaper looking for musicians for Martins (HAZ)( health action zone). He then joined the group called Shandon HAZ music group and they moved to Kerrigan Tyrell hall at tinkers cross (a suburb in Mayfield in north west of Cork city) Con then recalls that Martin dies and they rename the group to martin’s music. Con then mentions the covid 19 pandemic and how he set up a Zoom meeting (video conference platform) so the group could Still meet through these meetings when people were in lockdown and how it held the group together for the 2 years of the lockdown. Con then explains about playing a gig for women’s group in Farranree and how some members didn’t want women to be part Of the group as they saw themselves as men’s shed so those Members left and they now have women members in the Group. Con also explains how they have another gig for the lifelong learning festival in the local library and also mentions playing a tribute concert to Martin Aherne in the grounds of the orthopaedic hospital. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.19.06 - 0.25.43 </td> <td> Con then recalls been raised on Fuller’s Road. And talks about his childhood fishing on the Lough. He then mentions about his children when they were Born and Buying a mobile home in Garrettstown. And how finding a Stray dog which began 15 year relationship with dog agility Shows. And how he went to classes to learn to train the dogs in Agility Courses he then goes onto say how he began building Courses For the organisation. He then refers to how he travelled all over the country with his family going to dog agility shows and winning trophy’s and how his children learned to handle The dog as well. Con then mentions when he met his wife how he was involved with racing motorbikes and how he had few bad accidents. He then mentions boats and how physically demanding racing Boats was. Con then recalls how he also had no time to give to racing at that period. Because of family commitments and his music although he does Go on to explain how he did go to the Mediterranean France Spain and Portugal. Helping people taking their boats there and bringing Boats back from these locations. He then goes onto describe how he is retired now and people contact him to bring boats back from Spain and they send him His airline ticket and he goes help them sail the boats back to Ireland as they would have no crews. Con them recalls that he now sails with an individual called Pat O Leary and how his boat is a cruiser rather than a thoroughbred Racing boat. And how he invited Con and his wife on a cruise to Bantry taken in the sights of Sherkin Island Schull Baltimore. And how the summer weather was beautiful and how the cruising is Easier than racing as you go in straight line for miles and how The yacht racing is more physical on your body and how cruising is great fun. He goes onto say how he loves where he lives now and how he loves music and sailing. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.25.43 - 0.29.07 </td> <td> Con then returns back to growing up on Fullers road and how it Amazes him now that children in 2022. Are all indoors playing Computer games as to when he grew up he refers to how he Would have a sandwich and go out on the road and spend as Much time away from the home as possible playing football Hurling cricket cowboys and Indians. And how they had no technology at that time he goes onto say that sweets were a luxury and if they got some chocolate on Sunday you Considered it a great privilege. He then tells us were fuller’s road is situated by the Lough Church. And how earlwood estate a (suburb south west of Cork city) was only been constructed and beyond that you had open Country side. And how he and few friends had small terriers And would be out the country chasing rabbits and how healthy the Outdoor activities were. And how this generation only exercise Their two thumbs playing computer games and how they think They are great soccer players and can drive cars fast but they are Doing it all on screen were his generation were enjoying Themselves doing sport. He then describes how they were different times and how he loved living on fullers’ road. Con then give details about lighting bonfires And how the flames were as big as the two story houses and how he was getting small bit older and getting interest in women. He then give details of playing spin the bottle and kiss or torture with the girls and how there was no internet dating. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.29.07 - 0.35.42 </td> <td> Con then goes into detail on how small the house was that he Grew up in with his parents and sisters. He goes onto mention contraception and total abstinence he then goes explains how a TV programme called ‘The Way We Were’ Presented by Mike Murphy from RTE (Raidió Teilifís Éireann) and how it mirrored his own childhood memories and how it was so similar to his own childhood. Con describes how his own father was sleeping in the spare room and how they were cramped conditions. He then mentions a clock that his father owned and how he would Wind it every day and how Con still has the clock to this day And how he now winds it every day. And how his father got the Clock out a house fire in Ballyclough (southwest of Cork city near Mallow). He also recalls how his father was clerk of Works with the council and how his father was raised by his Aunt as both his parents died at young age he then goes onto say How he bought the family home when his Father died and how he renovated the house. He goes onto say he had a very privileged upbringing and how He would go to work with his father as a teenager and been let Go to the rubbish dump with the drivers. As his father went to Meetings with council staff and how other workers did not like Having the boss’s son with them. And he describes how ironic That he went on to do the same work as his father in the OPW Rather than in the council like his father. He then recalls how his Father picked the house on Fullers road And that it had the most land plus how it paid dividends to Con when he went on to sell it in later Years before the boom time in the building industries collapsed And how he got planning for apartments on the land before he Sold it . </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.35.42 - 0.43.17 </td> <td> Con again speaks about his father and how he loved him and his Mother he then explains how his father was also a motorbike Enthusiast. And in 1970 how Con paid six hundred pounds for 750cc Norton commando motor bike and how he was part of the Influx of big bikes into Ireland. And how his friends were also into big bike like Honda 4 and Kawasaki 3. And how the side of Cons house became a garage for them to Fix their bikes and how His father would have only seen bikes like the BSA Norton’s And triumphs. And how His father was amazed to see the Japanese bikes And the latest technology and how his friends thought he had The coolest dad as the other fathers saw them as dangerous Equipment. Con then recalls how some friends died on road accidents and How lucky Con was to never to be in very serious accident. He Then describes how his father died at the age of 73 and his father Smoking 60 cigarettes a day. And how Con was only 20 years old When his father passed away and his father was 54 years old when con was Born and how he had only 20 years with him but packed so Much into those years. In addition to this Con recalls how his father was very enthusiastic Person and how he would have the family up at 8 AM for Sunday mass. And how They would drive to Youghal beach and how they would Spend the day down there swimming and making sand castles He also talks about to how his father got to know the Fisher men that Would take Con up the river black water on their boats to check For illegal fishing nets. And make sure they would not be blocking the salmon going up Stream. And how his father was aware of Cons interest in boats and as Con was only a child at that time and would not have had Access To boats as his father had no interest in boats. He then Goes back talking about his first motor bike at the age of 16. And how his father helped him purchase the Norton bike at price of five hundred and 95 pounds. This was a lot of money 50 years Ago and how you would pay 20 thousand euros for the same bike in 2022. In addition to this Con explains how he went to a finance company at first to get a loan of the money. But He explain how he would be paying 45% back on the loan Con goes onto Explain how his father bought the bike for him and he paid him Back On a weekly bases. Con then mentions how if he was going camping with his Friends to Mondello Park (International Race Circuit). His father wouldn’t take no money That week for his bike but Says when he got within 100 pound Of the final payment his father did not take the final payment From him. He goes onto say how it set him up to save money and how at 71 years of age Con is happy going sailing and playing Music. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.43.17 - 0.56.57 </td> <td> The interviewer then ask Con about market gardens and he Explain how his father grew his own vegetables of potatoes and Cabbage and how they only lived 10 minute walk from Patrick Street (Cork city’s main street) and how his father let their Garden go into hay and using a scythe to cut it and making Haystacks in the middle of their garden and also keeping Chickens and how his father had apple and pear trees. Con then explains about going slogging apples and the fun of Doing it. He then describes about the cold weather and how they Made skating ring on the road and how different it is from kids Playing these days. He then goes into detail on cutting timber with a Cross saw Con then recalls on what his father’s job was straitening corners. He then mentions the road going up to Cork Airport and how it was only a boreen (a narrow country road). He then shows the interviewer a photo of the road been built and mentions a Mr Donovan who was an engineer. Con then mentions how his father Worked on three major road projects including the dual carriage Way in Tivoli and were it starts at silver springs hotel and finishes at Dunkettle Bridge and how it was the first road in Ireland to have a central reservation were traffic was going in two Different directions and compares it as major job at the time Comparing it to the likes of the link road Bypassing Cork city. Con then comments on Inchigaggin bridge and a Grand prix racing Before he was born and how it was an international circuit and How his father was of great personality and how the timber his Father cut was used for heating the house as that was the only Form of heating they had. Con then reverts back to his child hood and been bathed in a galvanised bath in front of open fire and How the heat coming out of the fire was the only heat in the House. And how they would light the fire in the bedroom only if You were sick and he then compared them to houses in 2022 Which would have better heating systems and how his own House now has double glazed and treble glazed windows. And How they would boil kettles of water to take a bath in his youth And he explains how it was like how they bathed in the cowboy films and that’s how he was raised and did not know anything better. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.56.57 - 0.10.104 </td> <td> Con then recalls the food they were eating and were they Would buy this food in the local shop. Before the advent of big Supermarkets and how everything from Bread and meat was Sourced locally and how the food was set dinners for each day Of the week he then mentions fish was always Fridays dinner And that’s how people lived there lives. Con then mentions Covid 19 pandemic and how there was a Polio epidemic in cork And how it was only effecting children who were bound to wheelchairs and he explains what calliper’s were and how he Was sent to live with friends of his fathers in Mallow and how The epidemic was confined to Cork city and how his father’s Friends had no kids and were delighted to take him into their Home. And how he was treated like royalty and how his pocket Money increased from 6 pence a week to 3 pence a day and how He spent the full summer down there and it was magical as he Had Great freedom as they were not as strict as his parents and how He built rafts and go out on the river and would have no life jackets and how there was some kids were in tragic accidents. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.10.0104 - 104.37 </td> <td> Con then returns to his childhood growing up in the lough and Going fishing and model boat racing in the lough and how he Was fascinated on how they sailed against the wind. He then Mentions how there was a gentleman in a Punt (flat bottomed Boat with square cut bow). And how this person thought him How to row and when he Became ill that Con took on the duty Of rowing the Punt to retrieve the model boats that became Entangled in the reeds. And how he was going to secondary School in (sully’s quay) (Sullivan’s quay secondary school) and How he would skip School on Wednesday afternoon to go Sailing on the Lough were he should have been up in Deer park Were the monastery was with the Christian brothers doing Athletes and GAA which He had no interest in. Con then mentions a Mr Corcoran who was in charge of the model boat club and he lived in Hartland’s avenue and how he Had Agreement with him to open the club on Wednesday afternoon In addition to making excuse to the Christian brothers why he did not go to Deerpark. Con goes into detail on what he did in the Rowing boat on the Lough he goes onto say how he fell in love With boats from that experience and from there he discovered Motorbikes women and alcohol and how he stopped the model Boat pastime. He then goes onto say that he then met his wife Clare and how He bought his first small sailing boat and how he Progressed to bigger sailing boats and how his last boat was 6 Berth and how Con bought it as a new boat and how expensive it Was but Himself and his wife travelled exclusively on it and had Great memory’s </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 1.04.37 - 1.06.12 </td> <td> Con then goes Into detail how he learned how to sail with Eddie English in Cobh (seaport town on the south coast of county Cork) and how he did a training course and was fascinated by The learning ability’s he got but had some idea how to sail Before taking the training course he then says that he took the Training course over 50 years ago, probably around 1972. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 1.06.12 – 1.07:57 </td> <td> Con then goes onto explain how he loved every aspect of sailing Which included the repairing of boats he then goes onto explain How he had a bridging loan with the bank for an extension on His house and how he spent the money on his first sailing boat In county Limerick and went back to the bank for more money The following week and how it all worked out fine. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 1.07.57 – 1.13.55 </td> <td> Con then explains what make a great sailor and how you need Passion for it which he still has at 71 years of age and how he loves everything involved with racing. Con then explains how he would Have sailed with people that He would never sail with again he Explains one episode of bringing a boat back from Spain with a very excitable person and his wife and they hit a storm at sea and how he was not Prepared enough with weather forecast and You have to be calm when you have problems at sea. And how a Three day trip took them five and half days because The person had the forecast wrong. And he goes onto explain how he did Another trip were the Person had everything you needed for a Cross channel trip and How Con made a mistake in the first Incident where he didn’t Read the forecast beforehand and how You need trust the people You are sailing with. And how people That would be in Baltimore a ( fishing village in western side of Cork county) for weekend and take a chance In bad weather because they wanted their boat back in its berth Because they would have work on a Monday and if left in west Cork they would need to retrieve it midweek. Con goes onto say that he Stayed in Baltimore for a week with His wife Clare because the Weather was not good for sailing and how his wife loved been On the boat. But she was not a sailor so Con was sailing single handily and His wife did the cooking on board and how above The deck was his concern and below deck was hers. Con explains He is very cautious when sailing because you had To think about others people life’s including the lifeboat people he then goes onto say how he looks at a series on TV called saving life at sea And the stupid things people do putting other Peoples life at risk to rescue them. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 1.13.55 – 1.21.53 </td> <td> Con then returns to explain in detail about his trip back from Spain with bad weather and the problems they had and when They came out the other side of the storm by the Fastnet light House and how Anne the person wife was a lovely person and How they were 4 to 5 mile outside the old head of Kinsale (a head land near Kinsale county cork). Con then goes onto explain how the boat engine failed them and It would be a situation that he would never put himself in again and how he has done longer trips since on trips down to Greece and how all the crew had their own showers and toilets on board And how it was pure luxury. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 1.21.53- 1.23.19 </td> <td> Con then goes onto tell when he joined the Yacht club and how He become a cruiser committee member and how he now Organises trips away and in the winter time he would organise To have Functions and talks in the yacht club and goes onto to Describe how one guy in the yacht club went sailing to Russia And documented his trip and then presented a after dinner talk About it In the yacht club and says you didn’t have to be a sailor To enjoy these events. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 1.23.19 – 1.25.03 </td> <td> Con then goes onto explain the process of a laying up supper And how they happened at the end of the sailing season and There is different classes within the yachting club and how Prizes are given to different types of boats for example Dinghy’s Cruiser and Racers he then goes to say that he sailed For 20 years on a boat which they called a “1720” which is a Very High speed machine. And they would do up 20 to 22 knots and Con says it would be The same as doing the speed of 100 miles an hour in a car plus Con explains that all these boats are the Same size and shape And it’s all about the sailors on board because they are Physically demanding and says he’s gone a bit Too old for that type of sailing these days. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 1.25.03 – 1.29.32 </td> <td> Con then explains the tradition of Stag night and how he would Go but he does not drink alcohol and how it’s different then a Stag that you would have before your Wedding. And how in the Yacht club it is very conducted event and how They would have A master of ceremonies and how he and Others would sing a Song or tell a story and recite poetry and There would be a Piano Player at this event and how it is done in a traditional way. Con then explains the traditional food they would eat for Instance Crubeens (from Irish crúibín, meaning pig's trotter) And how Messy they were to eat and how people in 2020 do not eat them. He also mentions Black pudding which (Is a blend of meat, oatmeal or barley herbs and spices and the Quintessential fresh Blood). And Tripe and Drisheen which Con Says he would not eat he Then explains what tripe and drisheen is and how popular it was To eat and how his father would have Eaten it he then goes onto Say how time have changed in the Yacht club especially the dress code of its members. And how it was because of people like Con joining the yacht club and Since he would not class himself as one of the doyens of Cork city. And how the Yacht club is open for everyone to join in 2022 And that it Would have been very difficult to join the yacht club Few years Previous and how they have changed practices and Put Initiatives in for new member to go sailing. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 1.29.32-1.31.05 </td> <td> Con then describes how it was when he joined the yacht club And how he knew people in his situation that would not go into The yacht club because they felt intimidated by the high Powered business men who owned luxury yachts. And how Con Didn’t care what they thought of him as he just wanted to go Sailing and could not afford his own boat and how He broke Rules to just go sailing. Moreover he explains how eventually he got to own his own Boat. Con explains how the yacht club was good for him and others During the covid 19 pandemic as they had an open marquee With heaters so he could go with his wife for meals in the yacht Club and how he felt safe there as they were outdoors. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 1.31.05 – 1.32.17 </td> <td> Con then goes into detail of the rules he broke in the yacht club He describes that he don’t like wearing long pants as he always wears shorts even in winter time and how other members would Have a more conservative dress code. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 1.32.17 – 1.37.40 </td> <td> Con then goes into detail on how he got into music and how he Always had a passion for African drums and how his wife’s Aunt Sheila. was involved in African drumming and how she Gave him a Phone number for Eamonn Cagney who is one of The best percussionist in the country and was playing music With Niwel Tsumbu and they were giving classes in Cork and how Con bought his own drum after a week of playing with them. And has been playing for 20 years he also mentions a guy called Fergal O’Connor who Would have Indian heritage and he was Giving a workshop in Cork For beginners and how he asked Con to help him with the Classes. And how a lady arrived with a pair of Conga drums and Con Then bought his own set the following week he also says how he is very impulsive person and how he was coming close To retirement so he decided to start his own band. And how he Put notices up in the local library for members to Play in nursing Homes he then explains about the African drums And how he was involved in several gigs and how he played in 2011 for Charity gig for the Tsunami in Japan On Patrick Street in Cork City and raised six thousand euros and how people were very Generous and how they had people from the Red Cross (a global voluntary network, responding to conflicts, natural disasters) and how they got the general public to play on the drums for fun. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 1.37.40 – 1.41.42 </td> <td> Con then explains how Martin’s Music works and how he Guides The group and details how they did the gig in farranree For Majela and how Con structured the group and how he would write up a list of tunes that they would play so that everybody in The group knows what they are playing he then Goes onto say That when the group gets back to normal after the Pandemic They can learn new songs and how they are planning a gig on the 7th (of April). And how they only play cover version of songs as a group the likes of Bob Dillon or Dickie Rock or Van Morrison. Con Explains what they get for these gigs is the feel good factor and How it is good to play to an audience he also say that they play For old folks home like St Luke’s and Ballyphehane which are Closed at the moments but is hoping to get back there shortly. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 1.41.42 -1.43.16 </td> <td> Con then explains how the group has performed better every Time they play as practice is good for bringing a group together He then explains that they don’t play music the whole time they meet as they also have chats whit each other as social Interaction and putting a little bit back into the community and They giving people some bit of happiness he then describes Martins Music as very good. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 143.16 – 1.46.24 </td> <td> Con then is ask by the interviewer what his party piece in the laying up super in the yacht club is and he explains that he sings The song the voyage about saint Brendan finding America and How He first heard the song Con also sings the rocky road to Dublin And ride on. Con then sings a verse of the voyage. INTERVIEW ENDS AT 16.10 PM </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Con O’Callaghan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 14 March 22 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Cork Folklore Project Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CFP_SR00797_O'Callaghan_2022 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Cork Folklore Project Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Cork Folklore Project Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Cork Folklore Project Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Cork Folklore Project Language A language of the resource English Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource .wav Building Cars Cork Injury Music OPW Polio Roads Sailing Slogging Apples The Lough https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/258f8a9e64793339a507e3a85bd81702.jpg e245f89b3e8cbbb2c200a3033ee23a69 https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/3125ce6124ce89fa3fce67b1a9671623.mp3 77a259a8bfc162d7ef72e5ad87d179a5 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Grattan Street Stories: Memory of Place Subject The topic of the resource Occupational Lore; Life History; Built Heritage; Health; Ireland; Cork; Middle Parish Description An account of the resource This collection focuses on a building on Grattan Street which has served as a Quaker Meeting House, a public Dispensary and as the Grattan Street Health Centre. The project was a collaboration between the CFP and the Cork North Community Work Department, Cork Kerry Community Healthcare, Health Services Executive HSE. The interviewees fall into two main groups: those who worked in the building and those who lived in the surrounding area and availed of the services provided in the building. This project follows on from the collaboration with the HSE in the “<a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/collections/show/10" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">HSE Orthopaedic Hospital Oral History Project (d'Orthopaedic)</a>”. There is a further connection between the two projects as many of the staff and services once provided in the Grattan Street Health Centre have now relocated to St. Mary's Health Campus (St Mary’s Primary Care Centre) Gurranabraher, the former site of the Orthopaedic Hospital. This topic of the relocation of services is also covered in some staff interviews. To date (October 2021) 13 interviews have been completed for the project. Interviewees discuss the Grattan Street building itself in terms of its historic significance, its benefits and drawbacks as a workplace. Broader themes related to or inspired by the building are also touched on including: personal relationship with the building, staff camaraderie, the problems with parking, memorable incidents at work, patient experiences and descriptions of the people and services for which the building catered. Healthcare professional interviewees detail their training, career progression and comparisons between Grattan Street and other workplaces. Their testimonies also provide a link with the community of patients they served giving further insight into attitudes to healthcare, diseases, vaccines, description of social conditions and the changes in medicine and technology in their working lives. Non-healthcare professional interviewees describe childhood experiences in or around Grattan Street (The Marsh or The Middle Parish), the social, cultural and economic conditions of the area, tenements, businesses, attitudes to and experiences of healthcare, vaccines, diseases, medicines and medical professionals as well as observed changes in these areas over time. Interviewees also reflect on the possible future uses of the Grattan Street building. Related Reference Sources <ul> <li>Barrington, R. (1987) Health, medicine and politics in Ireland, 1900–1970. Dublin: Institute of Public Administration.</li> <li>Butler D.M. (2004) The Quaker meeting houses of Ireland. Dublin : Irish Friends Historical Committee.</li> <li>Byrne, J. (2004) Byrne's dictionary of Irish local history. Cork: Mercier Press.</li> <li>Cooke, R. T. (1999) My Home by the Lee. Irish Millennium Publications: Cork.</li> <li>Dempsey, P. J. & White, L. W. ‘Childers, Erskine Hamilton’. Dictionary of Irish Biography [Accessed 18 October 2021]</li> <li>Harrison, R.S. (1991) Cork City Quakers 1655-1939: A Brief History. Cork.</li> <li>Houston, M. (2004). ‘Life before the GP’. The Irish Times. Available at : <<a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/life-before-the-gp-1.1158599">https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/life-before-the-gp-1.1158599</a> > [Accessed 18 October 2021]</li> <li>Keohane, F. (2020) The Buildings of Ireland Cork City and County. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.</li> </ul> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2019-2020 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Interviewees: Edith O’Regan, 'Mary', Sean Higgisson, Aoife O’Brien, Eileen Kearney, Imelda Cunning, Jane Ward, Liam Ó hUigín, Joe Scanlan, Mary Mulcahy, Philomena Cassidy, Don Morrissy, Derek O’Connell Interviewer: <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=2&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Kieran+Murphy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Kieran Murphy</a>, (<a href="https://corkfolklore.org/community-oral-history-outreach-officer/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP Community Oral History Outreach Officer</a>) Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Cork, Ireland 1940s-2020s; Waterford, Ireland; Dublin, Ireland; Limerick, Ireland; Relation A related resource Exhibition Artist Edith O’Regan-Cosgrave (also an interviewee for the project) created a visual artwork based around the Grattan Street Medical Centre building itself, as a workplace and health centre. The artwork incorporated direct quotations from the oral history interviews conducted for the project, and also included brief historical paragraphs about the building researched, written and edited by the <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/community-oral-history-outreach-officer/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP Community Oral History Outreach Officer</a> Kieran Murphy. This exhibition was launched on 6th February 2020 in “St Peter’s” on the North Main Street where a “Listening Event” was also held to mark the occasion. <img src="http://corkfolklore.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Grattan-Poster-for-Email-286-by-400.jpg" alt="Grattan-Poster-for-Email-286-by-400.jpg" /> Presentation and Listening Event To coincide with the launch of the Grattan Street Stories Exhibtion on 6th February 2020 a listening event and presentation of the history of the Grattan Street Medical Centre building and description of the project was given by <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/community-oral-history-outreach-officer/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP Community Oral History Outreach Officer</a> Kieran Murphy. <img src="http://corkfolklore.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/427A7714-1.jpg" alt="427A7714-1.jpg" /> Presentation In 2019 at the OHNI conference the <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/community-oral-history-outreach-officer/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP Community Oral History Outreach Officer</a> Kieran Murphy discussed social media and oral history which included audio excerpts from the Grattan Street Stories Project along with photographs of the building. <img src="http://corkfolklore.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Kieran-OHNI-e1634041838937.jpg" alt="Kieran-OHNI-e1634041838937.jpg" /> Audio Visual Presentation An audio-visual slideshow was produced featuring oral testimony from the Grattan Street Stories Project and combined with suitable images of Grattan Street and from Edith O’Regan-Cosgrave’s exhibition. This was created by <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/community-oral-history-outreach-officer/">CFP Community Oral History Outreach Officer</a> Kieran Murphy. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnjEtQeOb3I&t=1s&ab_channel=CorkFolklore" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Audio Visual Presentation Available to listen and view here.</a> Health and Vaccines Oral History Research Many of the interviews conducted for the Grattan Street project formed an integral part of the testimonies and research for the innovative <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/health/about" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">'Catching Stories' of infectious disease in Ireland </a>project funded by the Irish Research Council. <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/health/about" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img src="http://corkfolklore.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Catching-Stories-Poster.jpg" alt="Catching-Stories-Poster.jpg" /></a> Social Media Numerous suitable audio excerpts from the oral history interviews have been edited and shared on CFP's social media channels. <a href="https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1139167201582288901" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1139167201582288901</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1140909542240391168" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1140909542240391168</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1141264486768238592" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1141264486768238592</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1189872295923376133" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1189872295923376133</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1228322700415860736" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1228322700415860736</a> Orthopaedic Hospital Cork Folklore Project in collaboration with the HSE conducted an oral history project focussing on the Orthapaedic Hospital in Gurranabraher. Many of the staff and services once provided at the Grattan Street Health Centre site were moved to St. Mary's Health Campus (St Mary’s Primary Care Centre) Gurranabraher, the former site of the Orthopaedic Hospital. <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/collections/show/10" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">HSE Orthopaedic Hospital Oral History Project (d'Orthopaedic)</a> Swimming Article Kieran Murphy and James Furey co-authored an article about <a href="https://tripeanddrisheen.substack.com/p/swim-city?s=r" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Swimming in Cork</a> which appeared in the online magazine Tripe + Drisheen. This article features a number of interview extracts collected as part of the Grattan Street Stories Project. Related Interviews CFP_SR00756_Quilligan_2019; CFP_SR00758_Broderick_2019; CFP_SR00670_OShea_2018; Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Cork Folklore Project Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Cork Folklore Project Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Cork Folklore Project Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Audio Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 16 .wav Files Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Derek O'Connell Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Kieran Murphy Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 84 Minutes 15 Seconds Location The location of the interview Cork Folklore Project Hub, North Cathedral Visitor Centre, Roman Street Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data .wav Bit Rate/Frequency Rate at which bits are transferred (i.e. 96 kbit/s would be FM quality audio) 24bit / 48kHz Time Summary A summary of an interview given for different time stamps throughout the interview <table> <tbody> <tr> <td> 0.00.00 - 0.01.58 </td> <td> Family and House Grew up on Winter’s Hill between Blarney Street and Wyses Hill on northside of Cork. The third of 4 children all delivered by caesarean section. His mother was very small and the local GP, one of the first “lady doctors” of which there were only 4 or 5 at the time, and they covered for each other. Father worked in insurance and had a good job as assistant manager of insurance company. Mother worked full-time. Always family member in the house to help out, including a grandmother. An old male relative lived in the 3rd floor of the house. That wasn’t unusual, it wasn’t always one room per person. But it solved childminding issues. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.01.58 - 0.02.20 </td> <td> Grandmother Remembers grandmother’s lap, her dark blue apron with designs on it and knitting needles. She died when he was about 3. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.02.20 - 0.04.33 </td> <td> House and Mother’s GP Surgery 3 storey detached house, a bit unusual. Further back from the road than others, with passage in called “the passage”, hen house in front and back of house, which was normal at the time. Mother did house calls in the morning. In the evening they had to go to the dining room because the front room became the waiting room and she had her surgery upstairs. Learned young how to answer the phone. People might arrive with urine in a Paddy whiskey bottle. In retrospect she was checking pregnancies or urinary infections. He was frightened of her steriliser- an electric pot with instruments in it. Syringe needles were sharpened on an oil stone before being put in steriliser, and no one seemed to get infections. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.04.33 - 0.07.59 </td> <td> Routine/ Typical Day at Home & School Walked down Wyses Hill to school in St Al’s (St Aloysius) which was a girl’s school. Teachers Miss Brett, Miss Curran (Chris Curran’s sister maybe), Sister Aloysius in first class which was more challenging because she didn’t like the boys. There was two thirds girls in the class. At that time this was normal practice. Walked across Vincent’s bridge across by the Mercy Hospital and across by lark’s bridge. Recalls where the labour exchange is now (Intreo Centre Hanover Street) there were beautiful Georgian Houses (tenement houses) in terrible condition with lots of washing out and women out talking to each other and several generations playing, and that was normal. No one thought there was anything right or wrong with it, it was just the way it was. Went home for lunch, and often had soup and a main course especially in the winter time. A lighter meal in the evening. All the family returned home for lunch except his father who might be traveling to Bantry or Skibbereen which was a long way at the time. A lady prepared the meals for the family. People who worked in the house lived locally and were like members of the family. They might work for 2 or 3 years and move on, often when they got married. Someone else would come then, often by word of mouth, perhaps through his mother’s GP practice. Always ate fish on a Friday which he didn’t like. Suspects there was a rota for meals. ‘Meat and two vegetables’ was always the meal. Felt privileged to have that as not everyone could, and there was a good bit of poverty around. Recalls a “soundbite” from Blarney Street: “Johnny come in for your rasher and two eggs!” There was a great respectability, everyone respected everyone else and there wasn’t any talking down to people- it wasn’t acceptable. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.07.59 - 0.09.49 </td> <td> Playing near Home & the Haggard Didn’t get out of the house all that much. Played football outside the door for a while. Area called “the Haggy” across from where they lived, the Haggard* which was a kind of wasteland roughly where fancy apartments at bottom of Wyses hill are now. People used to dump their “ponnies”** in the old days. It wasn’t regarded as a place you’d go, it was just a steep hill. But people went there with their (chamber) pots. But the stigma of it not being a clean place remained even maybe 100 years after running water and sewage came in. So when playing football if the ball went down the haggy no one wanted to fetch it. Was not allowed to go out to play football, mother would have had a “conniption fit” had she known they were out doing that. [*Haggard or Haggart: A farmyard or small enclosed field; a vegetable patch or kitchen garden. Or area adjacent to the farm yard or what once was a farm yard. Traditionally this was an enclosed area on a farm for stacking hay, grain or other fodder. (sources: Wiktionary, meathfieldnames.com] **[ponny or ponnie: earthenware or metal pot or mug (Source: A Dictionary of Hiberno-English: The Irish Use of English ed. Terence Dolan)] </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.09.49 - 0.12.43 </td> <td> Family, Changes and Adversity Mother died when he was 13. Dad had had 1st heart attack previous year and he had retired from work and started an insurance brokerage as a hobby. Sister Catherine did medicine and went to America and didn’t want to return. Different doctors tried to keep mother’s GP practice going. Older brother in insurance now retired. Younger brother Michael born hypothyroid and had severe autism slept in his room and found it normal to share a room with a practically non-verbal brother. Remarks on how people what people can accept as normal even if inconvenient and that people are strong in the face of adversity. Discusses the resentment and rage which is normalised by the internet which has also contributed to the polarisation of politics “it’s as if only extremes are correct”. History suggests consensus is what works. The manipulation of social media has contributed to this phenomenon. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.12.43 - 0.14.47 </td> <td> Mother, her GP work and her car Mother was very bubbly. Black hair with white stripe in the centre very careful about appearance hair was always done properly. Very hard worker with patients and at home. Expected high level of neatness and cleanness. She had a bubble car maybe 200cc with a door in the front. She covered other GPs. She went to Hettyfield and left 10 year old Derek doing his homework in the bubblecar. A 13 year old girl asked what it was and said “ours is a Consul Cortina”. The first time Derek felt his car might not be adequate. Bubble car had two seats at front one at back entered from the front. Recalls 4 children and his mother in the car! That was normal. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.14.47 - 0.16.53 </td> <td> Mother & Father: Backgrounds and relatives Mother and father put great store in education. She was youngest of 11 and one of the first to go to university. Dad was youngest of 17 children many in the family had been engineers. Derek’s grandfather had been married twice. Derek’s paternal grandfather died in 1917 before his father was born. Paternal grandfather was a builder/engineer/contractor had a lot to do with building of Fitzgerald’s Park, he has photographs of the grandfather with his workers dressed in Victorian outfits for the Cork Exhibition (1902 probably). Maternal grandfather was cattle-dealer Cronin. They lived up in Fair Hill which was subject to a compulsory purchase order in the 1960s by Cork corporation. Google maps lists Cronin’s Field at the top of Cathedral Road, assumes that this was the same field. Knew relatives at top of Hollyhill who were farming until Hollyhill as we know it was build. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.16.53 - 0.18.04 </td> <td> Pawnshops and stolen goods Two pawnshops on Lavitt’s Quay and one at bottom of Patrick’s Hill. Doesn’t recall who ran them. The Christening Cups were stolen a few times by the same person from the waiting room in the house and were located by the Gardaí in the local pawn shop. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.18.04 - 0.21.36 </td> <td> Secondary School: transport, teachers, shawlies, baths Went to Christian Brother’s College (CBC) after St Aloysius, his grandfather, father and brother had gone there. One teacher Mr Richard McCarthy known as Dicky Rashers called Derek by his father’s name because he had taught him as well. The story with Dicky Rashers was that he had dietary issues and after Christmas an announced that he had had rashers. He was a nice man. If it was raining they got the number 14 bus down Wyses Hill which came every 20 minutes. They used to hide because Dicky Rashers would offer them a lift which they didn’t want from a teacher. Also cycled to school. Got wheels caught in railway track going to Eglinton Baths. Those railway bridges opened until the 1970s. Goods trains and Guinness trains used to cross over them. Cycled up Patrick’s Hill to get to the Christian’s rugby field (Landsdowne). Cycled down the hill when it was raining, breaks failed and stopped where Brown Thomas is now. Only 4 or 5 cars on Blarney Street at the time. When 15 a shawlie stopped him near the Templeacre Bar (Gurranebraher Road) and she gave him a pint jug and asked him get her Guinness from the snug. She would not be seen going into the pub but wanted her Guinness. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.21.36 - 0.24.09 </td> <td> Secondary school teachers Christians was somewhat elitist which a lot of people were not comfortable with. Many teachers were old and not qualified teachers. Mr Murphy taught him art for leaving cert, but he had been teaching junior infants. He was very small his feet would not touch the ground when sitting on a desk. Mr Townshend music teacher and great musician. All characters. Violence of corporal punishment, queuing around the classroom to answer questions on Geography or Latin. If you weren’t very academic you got a lot of beatings on the hands. Some of those less academic pupils became very successful businessmen. The Christian brother told the boys in the B class to be nice to boys in the C class because they might need to get a job from them later. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.24.09 - 0.26.04 </td> <td> Secondary Schools in general, elitism & ‘One Day a Week School’ The uniform was part of the school’s elitism. There was a school nearby “the Wana” (one day a week) and there was a clear difference between them and CBC. CBC had disciplined and scheduled classes all day. The one day a week school pupils were obeying the law, 12 or 13 years old selling papers to make money. They had to attend school until a certain age. People with dyslexia were beaten and treated with contempt. Scoil Mhuire girls private school was nearby and quite posh. Around the corner was St Angela’s was less posh. Rivalry between Christians and Pres (PBC, Presentation Brothers College). </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.26.04 - 0.27.22 </td> <td> Secondary School: lack of empathy, attitudes towards sports Was in first year of secondary school when mother died. There was no recognition of that in school and he dropped from A class to B class. A little help would have gone a long way. In retrospect there were probably a number of pupils with ongoing issues which were never addressed by the school, while the emphasis was on playing rugby. Rugby in Cork was elitist then too. Derek joined Tramore Athletic soccer club. A cousin played tennis quite well and a Christian brother said “why wouldn’t he take up a boy’s game?” </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.27.22 - 0.28.44 </td> <td> Eglinton Baths, swimming, chipper Eglinton Baths had a boys’ pool and a girls’ pool. Probably 25 yards. White tiles with balcony around each pool. Communal hot showers, but the pool itself was freezing and stinking of chlorine. “It wasn’t unusual to be blue and wet!”. Went home via Maylor Street and went Matt Kiely’s chip shop to warm up a bit. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.28.44 - 0.29.30 </td> <td> Changes after mother’s death, father’s career Younger brother went into full-time care when his mother died. And his dad was involved in local politics and trying to run a business. He was a Fine Gael councillor for over 20 years in the North Central part of Cork which would have been unusual. He was involved in the health board and the building of the regional hospital. He was chairman of the hospital board for years and of the health board. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.29.30 - 0.31.36 </td> <td> Repeating the Leaving Cert with Dr Paye Derek always assumed that he would be a doctor. He was offered a place in dentistry in college which he declined. His dad got him into the Holy Trinity College on Washington Street “Doc Paye’s” which was a military camp for getting your leaving certificate. He is grateful to Dr Paye and Miss Paye. For this school your hair was cut very tight, you wore a humiliating uniform, “you arrived on time or you didn’t arrive at all”. Mixed class, boys wore black, girls wore red with tartan. Every class was structured 45 minutes and took serious notes. They had studied the leaving cert papers and knew what needed to be learned. Still sees Dr Paye around and she must be a good age. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.31.38 - 0.34.15 </td> <td> First experience of University: courses and social and sport life After he resat the leaving cert he went to UCC in a course call First Common Science. This was an experiment when Pre-Med and Pre-Dent courses were done away with. In First Common Science you competed for your course. Had little experience of social mixing, and enjoyed going to the Kampus Kitchen (Campus Kitchen) to smoke cigarettes and drink coffee, and drink beer in the evening if you could afford it. First Common Science was not a problem because of the work done in Dr Paye’s. 60 got into medicine, 20 into dentistry and the rest did other science degrees maybe dairy science and science. Glad he got to mix and get to know more people. Thinks that his son who went to Trinity to do medicine probably missed out on that aspect of social life as he went straight into medicine. Small group of people in his course. There used to be rugby matches in the quarry in UCC where the Boole Library is now. The pitch was very muddy in winter. Dentistry were not able to field a team as there were not enough men doing the course. Playing the quarry you were just as good as everyone else because everyone was terrible. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.34.15 - 0.37.39 </td> <td> University: playing cards, betting, debating society, studying For the first year or two Kampus Kitchen was the place to play cards and a lot of money was won and lost there. He stopped playing cards because he saw people lose their grants. He once lost the money to be spent on a shirt for the Med Ball and had to attend with a pink shirt. As regards clubs and societies looking back he thinks he should have attended the Philosoph (UCC Philosophical Society, college debating society). People who were from Cork probably got less involved in clubs and societies, whereas those living on or near campus would have become more involved. Thinks the Philosoph would have broadened his education, mentions how Theo Dorgan was there during his time in college and thinks that Theo got a broader education compared to the narrower field of medicine. His education was greatly advanced in 2nd Year Medicine while in the library fretting about a physiology exam maybe 2 weeks before the exam. A mature student around 35 years old told him “the information in a book is inversely proportional to its size”. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.37.39 - 0.39.37 </td> <td> What’s needed to become a doctor and to practice No one asks him as a doctor where he came in his class, and it wouldn’t make a difference anyway. Many people who were academically gifted would not have been suited to being doctors. Is concerned that a medical education which requires strong left-sided brain skills to remember and regurgitate material may not produce great communicators and not great doctors. Someone with an average IQ could be a very good doctor. The economics of being a doctor suggest that maybe it should not be so attractive for people and they would be better in IT or science. Once you qualify in medicine that is only the beginning: you have to graft for jobs, get relevant experience and only then try to make a living. It’s just a primary degree unlike dentistry where you are a qualified dentist once you complete the degree </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.39.37 - 0.42.48 </td> <td> Working in North Infirmary: learning, some memorable cases Went to the North Infirmary. Lovely hospital to work in, was very well-treated. Very hard work. 3 medical interns, 3 surgery interns, maybe 2 SHO (Senior House Officer) and 2 Registrars. Recalls first night he was on for surgery when a patient from motorbike accident was to arrive in and the SHO left before the patient arrived. Nurses were excellent. Learned how to do things. Learned how to recognise cases that were too hot to handle. When on call started 9am Friday finished Monday at 5. There were very few GPs out of hours so got big queues in North Infirmary. Went to bed 4am one Sunday morning and he was told there was a young man with chest pain. The young man looked pale and sweaty and was wearing ex-army jacket which was “all the rage” at the time. Discovered that the man had been playing darts, had gotten a dart in the back and had a chest full of blood. Learned to be careful and not take things at face value. Another night a man was brought in by his friends. At the time Match of the Day (football highlights and analysis TV programme on BBC) was at 7pm or 8pm. The man had been in the pub and “his leg was swinging in the breeze”, he had fallen off a bar stool and broken his hip around 7:30pm but had stayed in the pub until Match of the Day was over before coming to hospital. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.42.48 - 0.51.04 </td> <td> Changes in healthcare: preventative medicine, vaccination, alcohol Suggests people may have been tougher in the past. Then reflects on the improvements in medicine and that “the good old days weren’t so good”, people didn’t live as long, not vaccinated, poor nutrition. As nutrition improved children became taller than their parents. Improvements in prognosis. Enthusiastic about preventative medicine. Although the medical card system did not take that into account, doctors were not paid for vaccinations on the medical card but they did it anyway. Gay Byrne encouraged people to get the measles vaccine. And there was a change in the demographics of the measles incidents over two years after that. Didn’t see cases of measles for 15-20 years, and it only reappeared when anti-vaxers (anti vaccination campaigners) appeared. Thinks it’s a scandal. Vaccination for measles is not individual it is based on herd immunity it requires 80-90% of the population to be vaccinated or the vulnerable will get it: people with immunodeficiency, leukaemia, chemotherapy. Discusses the changes in gender demographics in relation to cardio-vascular diseases and risk factors. There had been an economic difficulty with alcohol-you could only afford a small amount of alcohol (or cigarettes). But now alcohol is cheaper and cigarettes are more expensive. Mentions the trend of pre-drinking. Suggests problems of alcohol appear to occur further north of the equator. Discusses the off-licenses in Sweden where you had to order alcohol a bit like the system of ordering products in Argos. If your order for alcohol exceeded accepted level you were not served. This didn’t prevent people drinking as they made their own. Discusses the positive effect of smoking ban and the way people use the “nanny state” argument to oppose basic public health measures. Talks about the improvements in treatments and survival rates particularly for cancers and cardio vascular diseases. Compares this to reactions of indignation. Points out the hidden nature of preventative health care which can be effective but is rarely seen of credited. Preventative care is also less well understood compared with waiting times for doctors or ambulances, number of hospital beds. Thinks the question should be about quality of life and what can be done to improve it. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.51.04 - 0.52.47 </td> <td> North Infirmary working routine, cost of hospitals In north infirmary there was a doctors’ room and dining room where you had your own seat and there was a colour television which was unusual at the time. 6 interns. You worked every day and every third night as well and every third weekend. But if someone was on holidays you had to work every second one. The cost of a bed per night in the hospital was £80 and when it was closed the cost in other hospitals was £200-£300 per night. Discusses the merits of centres of excellence and lower-tech hospitals. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.52.47 - 0.57.07 </td> <td> Further training in St Finbarr’s & CUH, reviving a child, CPR After North Infirmary did obs and gynae (obstetrics and gynaecology) in St Finbarr’s Hospital and CUH (Cork University Hospital). Great training, lovely, practical and kind obstetricians. A small nurse Sister Tutor called him at night for a mother giving birth. The nurse cleverly directed him in delivering the baby with a forceps while making it seem like he was the one doing all the work. “Without the nurses we’d be nowhere”. His daughter is a nurse and sees how knowledgeable and capable they are at the coal face. Unwise for doctors to ignore what nurses say. The importance of everyone being on the same team. Recalls an A and E (accident and emergency) nurse who had all the equipment ready while the doctor was looking up what was to be done. Recalls a child around 7 years old who was dead from cardiac arrest after getting electrocuted on a Saturday afternoon. They used intubation, put up a drip, drugs, cardiac massage, and defibrillation. They didn’t have time to look up dosages they divided them amounts by 4 for a child. They had a good success rate at reviving dead bodies in North Infirmary- community response is key today. “an ambulance on its way doesn’t keep your heart beating.” Believes everyone should learn the basics of CPR. Recalls CPR in his GP practice. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.57.07 - 0.58.50 </td> <td> Further medical training and useful A & E experience After obs and gynae he did paediatrics, psychiatry, and a year in A and E where he learned that a little smile went a long way. Talked about how to politely and carefully deal with cases which were not serious enough to be in A and E. Public who might be waiting all day did not see the very serious cases that were happening out of sight. It was good training for a GP practice. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.58.50 - 1.04.21 </td> <td> Own GP practice, Dr Cagney’s GP practice & Spanish Civil War, Set up own GP practice on northside in their house. Found it lonely because there were so few patients coming in. He then practiced with Dr Michael Cagney until he got a stroke. Dr Michael Cagney was a remarkable man, big burly, chain-smoking man very kind to people. He would tell people to give up cigarettes while he was smoking at the same time. He was doing surgery and he returned to GP practice because he father had been running a practice but became ill. When Dr Michael Cagney sat his leaving cert he was too young to go to college so his dad and General Eoin O’Duffy decided to send him to fight in the Spanish Civil War. He rarely spoke about his time in that war, and must have been traumatised by it. He probably thought he was going out “to help the raped nuns.” Many people from Ireland went to fight in that war. And it was not that long ago. Reflects on children today being used as soldiers in other countries, and being involved in drug gangs in Ireland and on those who leave to fight for Al Qaeda today and crusaders in the past. Dr Michael Cagney was probably born around 1920. The practice was in 51 Grand Parade, 2 floors up. It was a very good practice, he was very ethical and kept very good notes on large A4 file in alphabetical order which was probably unusual for the time. They used the Merck Manual which was an encyclopaedia of therapeutics. You could ring surgeons for advice. There was a great sense of responsibility and great collegiality. Refers to the changing ways of doctors referring patients to hospitals. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 1.04.21 - 1.06.09 </td> <td> First day in new GP Practice, changes in care, responses to bad cases Remembers first day in Dr Michael Cagney’s practice which was in a back room and patients wanted to see Dr Cagney rather than Derek: “With respect to you doctor I’d like to see the doctor!” After time people came to see him specifically. Did everything, including: antenatal, postnatal and smears- it was perfectly normal for a male doctor to do a smear in those days before there were headline cases of doctors who did the wrong thing. Derek became deskilled in that area because it was too much of a risk. Suggests that new practices are often introduced in response to hard cases. Mentions the response to the Dr Harold Shipman murders in England where GPs had to list the number of patients they had who died in one year to prevent a similar case. One GP made a mistake in their statistics and rang up to clarify them, but was told no one would ever read the statistics so it didn’t matter. Says that lots of information is gathered but never really used. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 1.06.09 - 1.08.05 </td> <td> Learning on the job, diseases not disappearing Dr Michael Cagney learned surgery but had to learn paediatrics on the job. Thinks most people of average intelligence can learn very quickly when put in a situation. Recalls a patient with a rheumatic heart and the hospital intern found it hard to believe. Derek says “diseases don’t go away they’re just waiting for you to forget that they happen”. Thinks there will be more outbreaks of diseases due to lack of vaccination. Polio outbreak in Amsterdam 20 years ago. “diseases don’t go away because you are sophisticated or rich or white.” </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 1.08.05- 1.09.51 </td> <td> Attitudes to vaccination, TB Treatments in Cork Discusses the positive attitude towards vaccination in the past. People had seen children with whooping cough and adults who had holes in their lungs because of it. Doctors had patients who had limps from polio epidemic in Cork in 1950s, knows of a patient who died of post-polio syndrome in their 70s. TB was common but few admitted to having it- stigma associated with it comparable to leprosy or HIV. Mentions Mr Hickey in Sarsfield’s Court who was able to collapse lungs and do pioneering surgery to treat TB. Thinks vaccination is question of statistics not opinion. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 1.09.51 - 1.12.20 </td> <td> Routine as GP: house calls, pager, patients not going to hospital Typical day started around 9am. Might do 10 house calls in a day because people didn’t go to hospital or if they did not for very long. House calls were also more common back then because of the lack of transport options for patients. Discusses the pager service, finding a public pay phone and how getting in contact with a patient an hour after they used the pager was considered fast. Dealt with a lot of pathology at home if patients did not wish to go to hospital. Could visit a patient at home every day for a week or two if they had a serious condition. It was very gratifying when patients recovered. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 1.12.20 - 1.15.06 </td> <td> Public Health Nurse care Had little contact with the Grattan Street dispensary and health centre. Mentions the dental service there, ophthalmologist Dr O’Sullivan and public health nurses (PHNs). When doing the membership of general practice in London he was not believed when he said there were only 2 PHNs for Cork city centre. PHNs medical care had a physical, psychological and social side. Knows that dispensary doctors had limited treatments: “blue tablets, red tablets and liquids”. They worked before the medical card system, which he thinks came in the 1970s. When Derek became a doctor the system was ‘fee per item’ you were paid a small amount for each thing you did as a GP. Everything had to be written in a duplicate book. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 1.15.06 - 1.17.52 </td> <td> ‘The Marsh’ memories. Case of anaemic man Dad was in the St Vincent De Paul and many in the Marsh were living with 2 or 3 families (in some case 5 families) living in the same big Georgian Houses. Many of these were knocked down in the 50s and 60s and many moved to Cathedral Road and Fair Hill. Some families had lived for generations in the Marsh. Recalls visiting a man a PHN was concerned about. Man lived with his dog and had a picture of Elvis on one wall and Jesus on the other. He was very anaemic but wouldn’t go to hospital. The remedy was some injections of B12, iron and oral folic acid and Meals on Wheels. Believes the problem was nutritional- living on spam sandwiches. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 1.17.52 - 1.20.35 </td> <td> People with psychiatric problems lived in the community in the past, now are being hospitalised Some people who lived in the city centre had come from elsewhere where may have been rejected. Some had mild schizophrenia or personality problems. They came to live in the anonymity of town. Many muddled along living in bedsits and had as much company as they wished. Now similar cases are put in hospital maybe in situations that do not suit them. Discusses the idea of putting anyone with psychiatric problems into the same category. Compares how we treat other illnesses- there is no “abdominal ward” which would treat a huge array of different illnesses, these are catered for separately. Similarly he thinks it doesn’t make sense to put people who are depressed or hearing voices in the same place as those with an eating disorder. Does not think the problem will be solved by additional money alone. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 1.20.35 - 1.21.40 </td> <td> Ability of people to cope. Publican ran bar walking on her knees Highlights the extraordinary ability of people to cope. Recalls an elderly lady (who probably had polio) and ran a bar walking on her knees on a bench behind the counter. Thinks that today there is more a demand for everything to be perfect and this can lead to unhappiness. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 1.21.40 - 1.24.15 </td> <td> Reflects on career, mistakes and medical training Thinks that when he made mistakes it was because he had ignored the inner voice that suggested something didn’t smell right. One of the things that was instilled in learning to be a doctor was basic guilt. The default was guilt, the sense that if something went wrong it must be your fault. That is the downside of medicine: trained into a guilt-trip. Makes you vigilant all the time which can be tiring. Wouldn’t change anything, felt privileged and happy to meet people and make a connection and friends. It wasn’t possible to be friends with your patients, there had to be a dividing line, though he is friends with them now. You couldn’t do business with or have a relationship or a social life with a patient. Peggy Cronin O’Connell and Vincent O’Connell were his parents’ names. Interview Ends 1.24.15 </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Derek O'Connell: Grattan Street, Healthcare, Working Life Relation A related resource Other Interviews in this Collection <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/240" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00696_O'Regan_2019</a>; <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/242" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00704_Collins_2019</a>; <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/243" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00706_Higgisson_2019</a>; <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/244" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00712_O'Brien_2019</a>; <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/245" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00713_Kearney_2019</a>; <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/246" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00714_Cunning_2019</a>; <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/247" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00717_Ward_2019</a>; <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/248" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00727_OhUigin_2019</a>; <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/249" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00728_Scanlan_2019</a>; <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/250" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00729_Mulcahy_2019</a>; <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/251" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00732_Cassidy_2019</a>; <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/252" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00760_Morrissy_2019</a>; Language A language of the resource English Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 11 December 2019 Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CFP_SR00762_OConnell_2019; Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Cork Folklore Project Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 .wav file Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Cork Folklore Project Description An account of the resource Originally from Winter’s Hill, Derek describes his home and family: siblings, grandmother, his GP mother and his father who worked in insurance. He outlines his mother’s tasks and equipment as a GP. He describes his routine on school days, attending St Aloysius school and awareness of tenement houses en route. All the family except his father who was traveling returned for a big meal at lunch time prepared by a local woman who worked for them. Always ate fish on Friday. Recalls respectability being very important. He recalls the Haggart or “Haggy Field” at the bottom of Wyses Hill where “ponnies” or chamber pots were emptied. He remembers family adversities: death of his mother, father’s heart attack and his brother’s autism. He outlines more of his family history: paternal grandfather involved in construction of Fitzgerald’s park and the 1902 Cork Exhibition, maternal grandfather Cronin was a cattle dealer, Cronin’s Field at the top of Cathedral Road may be named after him. He mentions pawn shops and how the family christening cups would “go missing” and be located in the local pawn. Also recalls a “shawlie” asking him to fill her a jug of porter from a bar as she did not want to be seen going inside herself. He describes his Christian Brothers secondary school, the violence of corporal punishment, the teachers and cycling to and from school. Discusses the emphasis on rugby at the school, the elitism of this and the uniform. Reflects how in retrospect the school failed to address personal or emotional problems the pupils had. Mentions the one-day-a-week school nearby. Describes the Eglinton Baths. Talks about studying for the Leaving Cert at Holy Trinity College with “Doc Payne” before attending UCC. Recalls studying and socialising at university before outlining his further medical training, specific cases in hospitals (North Infirmary, CUH (Cork University Hospital) and St. Finbarr’s) and ultimate career trajectory towards becoming a GP. Reflects on improvements in medical care including vaccines, nutrition, public health and improving survival rates for many diseases. Remembers delivering his first baby and reviving a child who died from cardiac arrest. Describes ultimately working on Grand Parade as a GP in the surgery of Dr Michael Cagney who had fought in the Spanish Civil War. Discusses making house calls in “The Marsh” area, and the treatment of psychiatric problems. Finally, Derek reflects on his career, the sense of guilt and hypervigilance instilled in his medical training, and how mistakes are made when not following your intuition. Subject The topic of the resource Ireland; Cork; Middle Parish; The Marsh; Occupational Lore; Medicine; Family; University; Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Cork, Ireland, 1970s-2010s Accident and Emergency Alcohol Autism Baths Being a Man Blarney Street Boys Bubble Car Cards Career Career Path Cathedral Road CBC Characters Child Rearing Childbirth Childhood Games Children’s Games Chipper Christian Brothers Cigarettes Class Cork Cork city Cork Exhibition Cork University Hospital Cycling Disease Doctor dyslexia Eglington Street Baths Eglinton Street Baths Elitism Emigration Fish Fitzgerald’s Park Food Games GP Grandparents Guilt Gurranebraher Road Hettyfield Hollyhill Hospital Houses Hypothyroid Injuries Intuition Knitting Lavitt's Quay Leaving Certificate Maylor Street Measles Medical Training Medical Treatment Medicine Mental Health Mercy Hospital North Infirmary Northside Nursing One Day A Week School Parents Patients Pawn Shops Placenames Playing Polio Ponnies Psychiatric Public Baths Public Health Public Health Nurse Pubs Respectability Role of Women Rugby Sarsfield Court School Schooldays Shawlie Shawlies Shawls Social Media Social Status Spanish Civil War St Aloysius stigma TB Teachers Templeacre Bar Tenements The Marsh Tuberculosis UCC Philosoph Uniforms University University College Cork Vaccines whooping cough Winter's Hill Working Working life Workplace Wyses Hill https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/964c5543f34a8b53c7216fc6049ed5d7.jpg e245f89b3e8cbbb2c200a3033ee23a69 https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/files/original/55664d27d1d86acac3291bc0e0bbbb40.mp3 c6f7b639a9c85fe29042f5582739a54b Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Grattan Street Stories: Memory of Place Subject The topic of the resource Occupational Lore; Life History; Built Heritage; Health; Ireland; Cork; Middle Parish Description An account of the resource This collection focuses on a building on Grattan Street which has served as a Quaker Meeting House, a public Dispensary and as the Grattan Street Health Centre. The project was a collaboration between the CFP and the Cork North Community Work Department, Cork Kerry Community Healthcare, Health Services Executive HSE. The interviewees fall into two main groups: those who worked in the building and those who lived in the surrounding area and availed of the services provided in the building. This project follows on from the collaboration with the HSE in the “<a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/collections/show/10" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">HSE Orthopaedic Hospital Oral History Project (d'Orthopaedic)</a>”. There is a further connection between the two projects as many of the staff and services once provided in the Grattan Street Health Centre have now relocated to St. Mary's Health Campus (St Mary’s Primary Care Centre) Gurranabraher, the former site of the Orthopaedic Hospital. This topic of the relocation of services is also covered in some staff interviews. To date (October 2021) 13 interviews have been completed for the project. Interviewees discuss the Grattan Street building itself in terms of its historic significance, its benefits and drawbacks as a workplace. Broader themes related to or inspired by the building are also touched on including: personal relationship with the building, staff camaraderie, the problems with parking, memorable incidents at work, patient experiences and descriptions of the people and services for which the building catered. Healthcare professional interviewees detail their training, career progression and comparisons between Grattan Street and other workplaces. Their testimonies also provide a link with the community of patients they served giving further insight into attitudes to healthcare, diseases, vaccines, description of social conditions and the changes in medicine and technology in their working lives. Non-healthcare professional interviewees describe childhood experiences in or around Grattan Street (The Marsh or The Middle Parish), the social, cultural and economic conditions of the area, tenements, businesses, attitudes to and experiences of healthcare, vaccines, diseases, medicines and medical professionals as well as observed changes in these areas over time. Interviewees also reflect on the possible future uses of the Grattan Street building. Related Reference Sources <ul> <li>Barrington, R. (1987) Health, medicine and politics in Ireland, 1900–1970. Dublin: Institute of Public Administration.</li> <li>Butler D.M. (2004) The Quaker meeting houses of Ireland. Dublin : Irish Friends Historical Committee.</li> <li>Byrne, J. (2004) Byrne's dictionary of Irish local history. Cork: Mercier Press.</li> <li>Cooke, R. T. (1999) My Home by the Lee. Irish Millennium Publications: Cork.</li> <li>Dempsey, P. J. & White, L. W. ‘Childers, Erskine Hamilton’. Dictionary of Irish Biography [Accessed 18 October 2021]</li> <li>Harrison, R.S. (1991) Cork City Quakers 1655-1939: A Brief History. Cork.</li> <li>Houston, M. (2004). ‘Life before the GP’. The Irish Times. Available at : <<a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/life-before-the-gp-1.1158599">https://www.irishtimes.com/news/health/life-before-the-gp-1.1158599</a> > [Accessed 18 October 2021]</li> <li>Keohane, F. (2020) The Buildings of Ireland Cork City and County. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.</li> </ul> Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 2019-2020 Contributor An entity responsible for making contributions to the resource Interviewees: Edith O’Regan, 'Mary', Sean Higgisson, Aoife O’Brien, Eileen Kearney, Imelda Cunning, Jane Ward, Liam Ó hUigín, Joe Scanlan, Mary Mulcahy, Philomena Cassidy, Don Morrissy, Derek O’Connell Interviewer: <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=2&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Kieran+Murphy" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Kieran Murphy</a>, (<a href="https://corkfolklore.org/community-oral-history-outreach-officer/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP Community Oral History Outreach Officer</a>) Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Cork, Ireland 1940s-2020s; Waterford, Ireland; Dublin, Ireland; Limerick, Ireland; Relation A related resource Exhibition Artist Edith O’Regan-Cosgrave (also an interviewee for the project) created a visual artwork based around the Grattan Street Medical Centre building itself, as a workplace and health centre. The artwork incorporated direct quotations from the oral history interviews conducted for the project, and also included brief historical paragraphs about the building researched, written and edited by the <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/community-oral-history-outreach-officer/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP Community Oral History Outreach Officer</a> Kieran Murphy. This exhibition was launched on 6th February 2020 in “St Peter’s” on the North Main Street where a “Listening Event” was also held to mark the occasion. <img src="http://corkfolklore.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Grattan-Poster-for-Email-286-by-400.jpg" alt="Grattan-Poster-for-Email-286-by-400.jpg" /> Presentation and Listening Event To coincide with the launch of the Grattan Street Stories Exhibtion on 6th February 2020 a listening event and presentation of the history of the Grattan Street Medical Centre building and description of the project was given by <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/community-oral-history-outreach-officer/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP Community Oral History Outreach Officer</a> Kieran Murphy. <img src="http://corkfolklore.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/427A7714-1.jpg" alt="427A7714-1.jpg" /> Presentation In 2019 at the OHNI conference the <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/community-oral-history-outreach-officer/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP Community Oral History Outreach Officer</a> Kieran Murphy discussed social media and oral history which included audio excerpts from the Grattan Street Stories Project along with photographs of the building. <img src="http://corkfolklore.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Kieran-OHNI-e1634041838937.jpg" alt="Kieran-OHNI-e1634041838937.jpg" /> Audio Visual Presentation An audio-visual slideshow was produced featuring oral testimony from the Grattan Street Stories Project and combined with suitable images of Grattan Street and from Edith O’Regan-Cosgrave’s exhibition. This was created by <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/community-oral-history-outreach-officer/">CFP Community Oral History Outreach Officer</a> Kieran Murphy. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnjEtQeOb3I&t=1s&ab_channel=CorkFolklore" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Audio Visual Presentation Available to listen and view here.</a> Health and Vaccines Oral History Research Many of the interviews conducted for the Grattan Street project formed an integral part of the testimonies and research for the innovative <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/health/about" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">'Catching Stories' of infectious disease in Ireland </a>project funded by the Irish Research Council. <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/health/about" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><img src="http://corkfolklore.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Catching-Stories-Poster.jpg" alt="Catching-Stories-Poster.jpg" /></a> Social Media Numerous suitable audio excerpts from the oral history interviews have been edited and shared on CFP's social media channels. <a href="https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1139167201582288901" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1139167201582288901</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1140909542240391168" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1140909542240391168</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1141264486768238592" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1141264486768238592</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1189872295923376133" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1189872295923376133</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1228322700415860736" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://twitter.com/corkfolklore/status/1228322700415860736</a> Orthopaedic Hospital Cork Folklore Project in collaboration with the HSE conducted an oral history project focussing on the Orthapaedic Hospital in Gurranabraher. Many of the staff and services once provided at the Grattan Street Health Centre site were moved to St. Mary's Health Campus (St Mary’s Primary Care Centre) Gurranabraher, the former site of the Orthopaedic Hospital. <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/collections/show/10" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">HSE Orthopaedic Hospital Oral History Project (d'Orthopaedic)</a> Swimming Article Kieran Murphy and James Furey co-authored an article about <a href="https://tripeanddrisheen.substack.com/p/swim-city?s=r" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Swimming in Cork</a> which appeared in the online magazine Tripe + Drisheen. This article features a number of interview extracts collected as part of the Grattan Street Stories Project. Related Interviews CFP_SR00756_Quilligan_2019; CFP_SR00758_Broderick_2019; CFP_SR00670_OShea_2018; Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Cork Folklore Project Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Cork Folklore Project Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Cork Folklore Project Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Audio Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 16 .wav Files Oral History A resource containing historical information obtained in interviews with persons having firsthand knowledge. Interviewee The person(s) being interviewed Don Morrissy Interviewer The person(s) performing the interview Kieran Murphy Duration Length of time involved (seconds, minutes, hours, days, class periods, etc.) 61 Minutes 10 Seconds Location The location of the interview Cork Folklore Project Hub, North Cathedral Visitor Centre, Roman Street Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data .wav Bit Rate/Frequency Rate at which bits are transferred (i.e. 96 kbit/s would be FM quality audio) 24bit / 48kHz Time Summary A summary of an interview given for different time stamps throughout the interview <table> <tbody> <tr> <td> 0.00.00 - 0.00.19 </td> <td> intro </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.00.19 - 0.00.00 </td> <td> Earliest Memory Playing Fermoy In Fermoy about 3 years old playing under a table in a big room. His grand-aunt Julie O’Connor known as Auntie Jess owned the Grand Hotel in Fermoy. She bought the hotel. She was an entrepreneur. She was on good terms with the clergy. She didn’t like his name Donal and called him Don which stuck. She only had one eye, she wore a false eye. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.02.41 - 0.03.24 </td> <td> Where he lived growing up Initially grew up in Grattan Street Moved to Mardyke when mother bought house in 1949 and he stayed there until 22 when he went to Dublin. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.03.24 - 0.07.13 </td> <td> Living in Grattan Street Dispensary & Children’s Games Was told that he played with a girl and a pram. Played gobs with local children. Gobs: throwing stones up and caught them on the back of your hand. Remembers playing with bricks on the stairs in Grattan Street. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.04.40 - 0.06.27 </td> <td> Pharmacist Father House had three bedrooms. Maybe had a kitchen and at least another room downstairs. Assumes there was an indoor bathroom was unusual. Father was a pharmacist, met Don’s mother in Fermoy where he trained and they got married in Mallow. He was from Quilty in County Clare and they moved there after living for a while in Fermoy. He opened his own business in Clare- wasn’t a good businessman- he wasn’t good at getting patients to pay for their medicines and medications. He got a job as the pharmacist in Grattan Street in Cork city. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.06.27 - 0.07.46 </td> <td> Description of Father & Spanish Flu Vague memory of father. Not very tall. Kind man. Good singer and piano player. Father went to Rockwell College where he caught Spanish flu which stunted his growth at around 5 foot 6. His name was John or J.J and also known as Sean. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.07.46 - 0.10.14 </td> <td> Family & School His father stopped working in Grattan Street and there were issues between him and Don’s mother so they split up. Moved to Mardyke when mother bought house in 1949 and he stayed there until 22 when he went to Dublin Went to St Joseph’s school on the Mardyke. He is said to have run home twice from school on first day. Only knew of one person with a car, a teacher called Bob Tanner. “bob” was slang for shilling and “tanner” was slang for sixpence so he was known as “One and Sixpence”. He had an old ‘bockety’ Ford which holes in the floor through which you could see the road. Lots of children from the Marsh area- Sheare Street, Grattan Street etc. would have gone there. Don will be collecting his grandson after the interview and there will be lots of cars and no brothers teaching in the school. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.10.14 - 0.12.20 </td> <td> Violence & kindness of different Presentation Brothers in School Didn’t like the brothers, “they were brutes” except for a few kindly ones. He doesn’t like authority. Went to Presentation Brothers Secondary school where the lay teachers were more humane. The brothers were physically violent. Don expresses surprise that although one hears court cases about brothers sexually assaulting pupils that he hasn’t heard ones relating to physical assault. One very nice, good man was Brother Pascal who was very musical. He ran an accordion ban, a flageolet band (woodwind instrument) and a choir. Pascal ended up teaching deaf pupils in Greenmount. He didn’t like anything about school. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.12.20 - 0.14.40 </td> <td> Childhood Games & Local Area Got up to mischief outside school. Lots of children in the Mardyke at the time who he played with. House he grew up in was beside Fitzgerald’s Park where he could play. They played football, cowboys and Indians, Robin Hood and climbing trees. He grew up surrounded by famous sports people including Noel Cantwell who has an avenue named after him who captained Manchester United. Tommy Kiernan and Barry McGann played rugby for Ireland. He grew up near Sundays Well Tennis Club, Cork Cricket Club, university playing fields, and the public baths. And he can’t play any of those sports. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.14.40 - 0.19.07 </td> <td> Description of Mother & her Guesthouse Mother came from outside Youghal from a farm. Later worked with his grand aunt in Fermoy. Small lady. Ran her house as a guesthouse. She bought the house intending to keep students. Lots of commercial travellers stayed there and tourists in the summer. His 2 sisters sent to boarding school Loreto Convent Fermoy where his mother had gone. She didn’t have a great sense of humour. Her main concern was providing for them. She lived to be 97. Commercial travellers were salesmen who called on retail shops to get goods into the shop. Recalls a commercial traveller called Mackintosh for Dell Comics, and he had stacks of comics in the van and he gave one of each to Don. There was one for keys, fire alarms. Often colourful characters who had their own cars. Guests also included chauffeurs who drove rich Americans around Ireland. The Americans may have stayed in the Metropole Hotel. The cars were big Austin Princesses like a Rolls Royce and they were parked on the Mardyke and were never damaged. He got a spin in them. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.19.07 - 0.24.09 </td> <td> Home Life: Guests, Food & Cooking, Description of the House, Card-playing Felt like the house wasn’t theirs because there were always strangers in the house. Always 4 or 5 students staying with them. When older he got to know the students. Grew up on his own and still describes himself as a recluse. Mother cooked breakfast and tea but not a midday meal. She was a very good cook. Did all her own baking. Basic meals: eggs for breakfast. A fry in the evening. Chips were made on a Friday which were cooked in lard and put in brown paper. Whiting fish which he hated on a Friday as meat wasn’t allowed for practicing Catholics. They ate in kitchen while the guests ate in the dining room. When the guests weren’t eating it became the sitting room. Fire lighting always in the sitting room. It was like a game of whist always moving tables. His mother was a very good card player they played at Christmastime when her friends Elsie and Liam who were teacher came to visit. They used to play the card game 110. Elsie used to pick up cards from the discard pile of cards which was a form of cheating but she was never prevented from doing it. For a small house it was very busy. Don still owns the house. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.24.09 - 0.25.41 </td> <td> Don’s Holidays and his Mother’s Holidays Mother took a few days off around September where she stayed with an unmarried cousin Maureen Hennessey in Sandycove Dun Laoghaire. She also visited Elsie and Liam in Malahide. Describes travelling from north Dublin to South Dublin as a great distance. He was sent to an uncle and aunt during the summer for a holiday. Had cousins around his age living on the farm his mother grew up in where he stayed on holidays. His uncle had a buckrake which had spikes and was attached to the back of the tractor. His uncle put straw on it and put the children on the straw and he drove the tractor so they were swung from side to side. Don doesn’t think this was very safe. Remembers the summers as hot and sunny. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.25.41 - 0.29.21 </td> <td> University and Debating Went to UCC in 1963 for a 3 year Commerce degree. Worked in Cork briefly and then in a Canadian merchant bank for 3 years in Dublin. And then he came back to Cork. UCC was the most important time in his life. Gained confidence and met lots of people. Total freedom compared to school. Met his wife there. Was not a great student he says. Was involved in debating which allowed him contact with other universities. Recalls debating against Michael D. Higgins. Thinks he began university later having started working first possibly in the ESB. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.29.21 - 0.35.55 </td> <td> UCC: The debating Society, Study, Lecturer’s Gowns, Rules and grounds and gardens There was a Commerce Society. The Philosophical Society of “philosoph” was the big one. It had people from every faculty where they “talked rubbish”. Once won the speaker of the year award. The debates were held on Saturday night. The auditor of the philosoph was Oliver Lyons who was a teacher in Carrigtouhil later once said “I am the philosophical Society” in response to a challenge to the rules. Don had about 50 in his class. A son of his did Commerce with 300 in his class. Doesn’t think they had to study as hard back then. First lecture the dean came in late wearing a white linen jacket and panama hat, a famous economist John Busteed. He expected them to do some work but “not as hard as the little girls in Woolworths”. When you registered in UCC you met the registrar and the president. Don was called mister for the first time. The president told him to work hard. All lecturers and professors wore gowns. Recalls the nicely cut grey suit of the president. RAG week was a very tame event compared at the time. In his 2nd year a classmate said that the new first years were too pushy and they should have been more humble. There was a rule that you couldn’t walk on the grass on the Quad and that girls were not allowed to lie on the grass anywhere. The lower grounds were wild and had subtropical plants, where the Glucksman is now and it’s more tamed. He preferred it wild. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.35.55 - 0.38.25 </td> <td> Work, Marriage, Honeymoon Worked in Cork for 9 months then moved to Dublin. Had a flat in Clyde Rd. graduated 1966 and married his wife Deirdre on Monday 14th August 1967, went to Achill for their honeymoon. Stayed a few nights in Butler Arms Hotel in Waterville and stopped in Limerick in the Royal or the George Hotel. They didn’t realise there were any buses in Limerick! When she arrived back in the flat in Dublin there were 4 quasi-empty milk bottles in the sink! They are still married after 53 years. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.38.25 - 0.41.22 </td> <td> Pensions Work in Dublin Worked with Royal Trust Company subsequently Royal Trust Bank. They were money managers. Pioneered the area of privately invested pension funds, until that time insurance companies dominated the market. Spent his life working in pensions because of that experience. They expanded to merchant banker and money market transactions. He learned a lot although only peripherally involved- much more than he learned in UCC. He didn’t like his new boss and left they job because of him- is not sure it was the best decision. Flat in Clyde Rd and also bought a house in Dublin with the aid of a company loan. Mortgage interest rates were at 8% or 9% and his was 4% or so. Paid £5,500 for the house and sold it a year later for £6,500. Ballinclea Heights in Killiney. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.41.22 - 0.43.15 </td> <td> Living Accommodation in Cork & Buying Houses Rented a place behind Oriel Court Hotel in Ballincollig. The big house and outhouses had been converted into flats. They rented what had been the stables. Then bought a house in the city centre of Cork on Western Road which they sold and bought another house further up Western Road which was also sold and they now live in Shanakiel where they are for 34 years. They nearly forgot the baby when they were moving house! </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.43.15 - 0.45.51 </td> <td> Hopes for Cork development Change in development in Cork over the years. He says he doesn’t meet people in Cork city in the way he used to. Is looking forward to the new changes in the city on the quays and docks which over the next decade will be huge he thinks. He would look to see the equivalent of Dublin’s financial centre in Cork. McCarthy from Fexco said he wouldn’t move from Killorglin to Dublin because it doesn’t have scenery. Believes it’s possible for people to work from anywhere now. Would also like to see Cork have an IT hub. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.45.51 - 0.49.10 </td> <td> Grattan Street Dispensary for Weddings Dispensary on Grattan Street he doesn’t know what happened to it. Although he was back in the building for a wedding. Never got to go back and look inside. He was married in Honan chapel which had more appeal to him than a room in the old dispensary. Recalls a cut-stone building facing onto Grattan Street. Never remembers being inside the dispensary. Left the dispensary when he was 3 years old. In St Josephs School he met boys from Sheares Street and Paul Street but doesn’t think they had the opportunity to go to university. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.49.10 - 0.50.36 </td> <td> Outlook and reflection on life Raised as an only child and glad that his own children have been raised differently. Adamant after his own childhood that he would look after his own children as best he could. Believes that his own background gave him a sense of insecurity and hunger which drove him to find security. Retired early and was involved in a number of business deals of varying success. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.50.36 - 0.52.34 </td> <td> Grattan Street: Dairy, medicine and cream Recalls Grattan Street being busy and having tenement houses. There was a dairy on each end of Grattan St. Bradleys dairy at Sheares Street end and another one at the Kyle St end. It was all horse drawn carriages- few cars and lorries. The dairy sold butter. Was sent on his bicycle with an Andrews Kruschen Salts jar. His mother took the Kruschen salts every day as medicine. It was a small brown bottle half size of beer bottle with screw on top, with grease proof paper to prevent leakage. The jar was for cream which cost sixpence. They also sold butter pats but they didn’t buy butter there. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.52.34 - 00.54.44 </td> <td> Tripe and Drisheen His mother never cooked tripe and drisheen. Tried them since and didn’t like. Drisheen “the most gelatinous horrible stuff”. Thinks tripe should be nice with onions and milk. His mother told a story that after giving birth she was confined to bed for weeks in a nursing home in Fermoy and as a special treat the nun in charge gave her tripe and his mother broke down in tears because she couldn’t eat it. Don knows men who were reared on tripe and drisheen. Likes black pudding. Has eaten haggis which he liked the taste of. He asked what Haggis was and was told that he didn’t want to know! </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.54.44 - 0.55.06 </td> <td> Pawn Shops and Lack of Money Didn’t have any dealings with pawn shops that he knew of even though there wasn’t much money around. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.55.06 - 0.57.36 </td> <td> Coal Quay, Shawlies Status and Respectability Recalls the Coal Quay and the shawlies, which he suggests was not a complimentary name. Discusses how he read that there were degrees of respectability or status. At the bottom were shawlies, then women who wore coats and scarves, then women with coats and hat, and above that were women who wore costumes and hats. Says he wasn’t aware of that at the time. He subsequently saw a clip of the Coal Quay on television where a women wearing a hat and coat turned her back to avoid being recorded as being in the Coal Quay Mentions Katty Barry’s pub where crubeens were sold at closing time. Though he was “wild enough” in college he didn’t drink until he left college and began to work. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 0.57.36 -1.01.02 </td> <td> Cork Dancehalls 1960s Recalls the Main Rest in UCC which transformed into a dancehall one night a week, and everyone went to “The Rest”. Robin Power (who trained as a dentist but became an entrepreneur) started a dance in the Arcadia known as The Dinosaurs, which he thinks was on Thursday or Friday night which everyone wanted to attend if they had enough money. A typical student might have a bicycle but at the time Robin Flower had an Alfa Romeo! Brought big Irish bands there like Sandy Shaw. Arcadia was a designed ballroom with a mirrored disco ball which made it more romantic and exotic. The rest closed at 11pm and the Arcadia at 12 midnight. He met a women from Ballinlough who said she walked home from the Arcadia late at night because it was so safe back then, but she was afraid of seeing a ghost! That’s how innocent things were. The Arcadia still stands it is student accommodation now across from Kent train station. </td> </tr> <tr> <td> 1.01.02 - 1.01.10 </td> <td> Outro </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Don Morrissy: Grattan Street, Healthcare, Working Life Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CFP_SR00760_Morrissy_2019; Relation A related resource Other Interviews in this Collection <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/240" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00696_O'Regan_2019</a>; <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/242" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00704_Collins_2019</a>; <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/243" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00706_Higgisson_2019</a>; <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/244" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00712_O'Brien_2019</a>; <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/245" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00713_Kearney_2019</a>; <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/246" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00714_Cunning_2019</a>; <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/247" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00717_Ward_2019</a>; <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/248" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00727_OhUigin_2019</a>; <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/249" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00728_Scanlan_2019</a>; <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/250" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00729_Mulcahy_2019</a>; <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/251" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CFP_SR00732_Cassidy_2019</a>; <a href="https://corkfolklore.org/archivecatalolgue/items/show/253" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> CFP_SR00762_OConnell_2019</a>; Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource Cork Folklore Project Language A language of the resource English Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Cork Folklore Project Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Cork Folklore Project Audio Archive Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource 1 .wav file Subject The topic of the resource Ireland; Cork; Dublin; Middle Parish; The Marsh; Grattan Street; Occupational Lore; University; Description An account of the resource Don recalls his entrepreneurial great-aunt who owned the Grand Hotel in Fermoy. Recounts early years in the Grattan Street Dispensary building where his father was the pharmacist. Describes growing up on the Mardyke close to St Joseph’s School and Presentation Brothers School which he attended. Talks about the violence of corporal punishment. His mother ran a guesthouse in the family home, including preparing all the meals for the customers who were mostly university students and commercial travellers with their own cars which was rare. Remembers summer holidays on a cousin’s farm. Describes his time in University College Cork as the most important in his life. Discusses student societies, debating and the university grounds. Outlines his working life in pensions, career direction, marriage as well as living accommodation. Expresses his hopes for building developments in Cork and the emerging opportunities of remote working there. Reflects on how his background has formed his outlook on life. Describes cycling to collect cream from Bradleys Dairy on Sheare’s Street in an Andrews Kruschen Salts jar. Also mentions his distaste for tripe and drisheen. Talks about a hierarchy of respectability in Cork based on types of clothing, with shawlies being the lowest rank. Discusses Cork dancehalls in the 1960s including UCC, the Arcadia and the people who organised them. Arcadia Bands Business Cars Childhood Childhood Games Children’s Games Clare Coal Quay Commercial Travellers Cooking Corporal Punishment Dancehalls Dances Entrepreneur Fermoy Fitzgerald’s Park Food Gobs Grattan Street Guesthouse Healthcare Honan Chapel Katty Barry Mardyke Marriage Medicine Medicines Middle Parish Music Musical Instruments Parents Playing Presentation Brothers Public Baths Respectability School Schooldays Shawlie Shawlies Shawls Sheares Street Spanish Flu Sport St Joseph's School The Marsh Tripe Tripe and Drisheen UCC UCC Philosoph University University College Cork Weddings Working Working life